Erra releases over Rs1b for AJK reconstruction

Rs1.5 billion also released for provincial earthquake reconstruction authority.

MUZAFFARABAD: The Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authourity (Erra) has released Rs1.077 billion for the completion of ongoing reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in earthquake-hit areas in Azad Kashmir.

This amount was released to Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) State Earthquake and Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (Serra) from the Rs5 billion released to Erra by the federal ministry of finance. Erra has also released Rs1.5 billion for the Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Perra). Serra has been experiencing a financial crunch since April.

Erra is currently reconstructing 13,000 schemes in quake-hit areas of Azad Kashmir and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, of which over 6,000 have so far been completed. As many as 4,000 projects were delayed because of the shortage of funds.

Hundreds of school projects have been affected since contractors stopped working after delays in payment of bills.

The federal reconstruction body said that the release of funds will address the issues of delay in construction work. “I hope that the released funds will boost work in the hundreds of ongoing projects in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir. Reconstruction work in the affected areas is a priority and work will be stepped up in the coming days,” said Erra Deputy Chairman Haroon Aslam.

Reconstruction work on the New Balakot City was initiated last month. Erra has released Rs200 million for immediately developing one of the sectors in Balakot City, while other high-priority projects like Nalochi Bridge in Muzaffarabad, Peshawar High Court, NHA and Chief Postmaster have also been given considerable amounts of funding for immediate resumption of work, he added.

The Azad Kashmir government believes that work on hundreds of new projects could not be initiated after President Asif Ali Zardari transferred Rs50 billion to the Benazir Income Support Programme from the world community funding for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of quake-affected areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2010.