Red-tapism: Islamabad jail project likely to face delays

ISLAMABAD:

The project of a model jail in Islamabad my further be delayed as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has still not compensated people whose land was acquired for the project.

The civic agency has yet to clear 90 kanals in H-16 for the 720-kanal project, said an Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) official on Tuesday. The CDA is already long-past its initial August 25 deadline to hand over the land.

ICT Development and Finance Director Captain (retd) Mushtaq Ahmed chaired a meeting on Tuesday to review progress on the jail project.

The ICT official said that instead of land officials, the CDA sent its architecture director to the meeting, even though his expertise is largely irrelevant at this stage.

During the meeting, when Ahmed asked about progress on compensation issues, the CDA official said he was not the relevant person to respond to the question.

According to the master plan, the jail will cost around Rs1.2 billion, out of which the interior ministry released Rs13 million in August last year. The project is scheduled to be completed in four years and will have a capacity to hold 40,000 prisoners. The meeting asked the CDA to expedite the compensation process so a PC-1 could be prepared and forwarded to the Planning Commission before Nov 30.

CDA Land Management Director General Nadeem Abro said he could not attend the meeting because Tuesday was his first day back in office after having gone on leave. He said the CDA has paid around Rs666 million to land owners, and the remaining landowners will be compensated soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2014.