Meeting reviews DHA annual budget

[Salman]

A special meeting of DHA's Executive Board chaired by its President (PEB), Corps Commander, Lieutenant General Zahirul Islam was held on Monday at Headquarters 5 Corps to review and approve DHA's annual budget for the fiscal year 2011-12. A record amount of rupees 4.9 billion which is 61 percent of the total budget including Rs 2.9 billion for Phase-VIII development has been earmarked in the DHA Budget this year for undertaking multifaceted development works in DHA.

A sum of Rs 1.03 billion has been separately earmarked for initiation of development works in DHA City Karachi (DCK), an upcoming residential project on Super Highway whose master planning has been completed on schedule as per the modern engineering and architectural concepts.
The Executive Board approved a development strategy for DHA with focus on speedy completion of infrastructure development of phase-VIII and other ongoing development works in DHA. The significant feature of DCK development plan is the initiation of development works in DCK including construction of boundary wall, entrance gate, security towers, theme park, arterial roads and office/residential complex.
Lieutenant General Zahirul Islam directed the authority to institute a mechanism of Project Management Review (PMR) which should be carried out periodically to monitor and speedup the ongoing development works. He stressed upon the need of completing development projects at a fast pace maintaining highest degree of transparency and professionalism. The Corps Commander desired that DHA should adopt a pragmatic and versatile approach to ensure revival of DHA Cogen Plant at the earliest.
The board was informed that the Third Party Analysis (TPE) and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of Cogen Plant have already been completed by Siemens Germany and Fichtner Germany respectively, while the technical reports of the same would be available by end November 2011. The Executive Board was informed that negotiations with various energy sector companies for the rehabilitation, operation and management of the Cogen plant are under process and the plant is most likely to become functional by mid 2012.
The Executive Board approved the Creek City Medial Complex (CCMC) project to be built in DHA Phase-VIII having multifarious independent medical units to provide state-of-the-art medical and support facilities to the public. PEB also stressed upon DHA the need for revival of stalled water front projects through a reinvigorated strategy.-PR