Islamabad: CDA faces Rs 3.22bn shortfall, fund shortage hits mega projects

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Official document says Rs 1.076bn of Rs 4.3bn development package released so far

By Muhammad Bilal

ISLAMABAD: The current financial crunch has adversely affected the Islamabad Development Package, as the capital’s authorities faces a shortfall of Rs 3.224 billion to carry out mega development projects.

The official document presented to the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Interior shows that prime minister’s three-year (2006-09) development package was announced for the capital city to the tune of Rs 4.3 billion.

However, the government has so far released only Rs 1.076 billion, showing a shortfall of Rs 3.224 billion.

According to the document, 65 schemes have to be carried out in health, rural development, education and gas sectors.

Five schemes with the allocation of Rs 282.243 million have to be carried out in health sector, 51 for rural development with Rs 740 million, four in education sector with Rs 3.149 billion and five in gas area with Rs 128.414 million.

The document says the Islamabad Capital Territory’s (ICT) administration is facing constraints in improving law and order situation due to meagre budgetary resources.

It says there are 140 madaris in the capital and of them, 122 are registered.

According to the document, there are only 87 Auqaf mosques out of a total of 800 mosques in Islamabad. Similarly, there are only two Auqaf imambargahs out of a total of 15 imambargahs in the city.

In the document, the ICT administration reveals that the government has so far made an expenditure of Rs 110 million on the construction of Bari Imam Complex, showing 30 percent progress. The total cost of the project is Rs 641.5 million.

The construction of Judicial Complex has been completed with the expenditure of Rs 344.94 million, while the work on construction of Revenue Service Centre at Golra has yet to begin due to site dispute.

The document says the PC-I for acquisition of land for construction of prison and training institutes for prisoners and prison staff at Malot has been sent to the Planning and Development Division for the approval of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).

It says the government has allocated Rs 299.427 million for rural development schemes under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 21 different schemes.

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