CDA revises controversial plan

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

Islamabad - The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Friday revised and updated the PC-1 of the controversial Light Emitting Diode (LED) project which included the replacement of 65,000 old conventional street lights with LED lights.
The revised plan has been submitted to the planning commission for further processing and approval.
This was stated in a written reply submitted to the Senate by the Cabinet Division Minister Incharge. He informed that the present version of the PC-1 of Rs 8 billion LED project was retracted and the CDA had submitted the upgraded version of PC-1 to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP). The CDWP also directed the Cabinet Division and the CDA to make a detailed presentation to the Planning Commission deputy chairman after seeking confirmation of funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADP). It also advised the CDA to invite the ADB to the presentation. The reply was given in response to Senator Hafiz Rashid Ahmad’ question about the LED lights installation.
Under the project, the old conventional street lights would be replaced with LED’s and ADB will provide the soft loan to the civic body to execute the project. The CDA officials say the project would help them save million of rupees in the form of utility bills. Concerns were raised by some CDA stakeholders about the appointment of former member engineer Ibrar Shah as engineering team member for the LED project. The fact, that he was an electrical engineer and not suitable for the post of member engineering, made the project controversial.
Transparency International (TI), Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division also expressed concerns over the LED project tendering process. Even the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Chairman Shahid Bugti termed the project a ‘scam in the making’. TI also questioned CDA about the project’s tendering while PPRA also sought a report from the CDA on a same issue. A high level CDA committee of the CDA declared that the project not financially beneficial.
However, the CDA chairman Farkhand Iqbal was not ready to acknowledge any of the anomalies or losses in regard to the project. In a recent news conference the chairman said that installing LED Lights would save 52 percent of the CDA’s energy requirements, which will reduce 8.32 MW load on national grid. CDA believed the project was important and financially viable but has not awarded any contract for purchasing LED lights.
He said the CDA was managing 65000 conventional street lights which added a load of 16 MW on the national grid and incurred an annual expense of over Rs 1.2 billion. The National Energy Conservation Center approached the CDA to replace the conventional public lighting system with LED lighting in order to save energy consumption.
US Embassy officials visit IPO: The US Embassy economic section official Robert Ewing, Economic Counselor Sunil Ravi and other economic officers visited the Intellectual Property Organisation of Pakistan (IPO) headquarter on Friday.
They called on IPO-Pakistan Director General Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta.
Matters pertaining to mutual interest, including cooperation for IP rights, enforcement, training and capacity building were discussed. It was suggested that joint efforts be made to explore different avenues to benefit from each other’s experiences.
Bhutta informed the gathering about the achievements of the IPO and stated that a number of initiatives had been taken to make the general public aware about the services and importance of IP rights. He appreciated the US officials’interest in the promotion of IP rights and stressed the need for extending training facilities in this regard.
The US officials said the gaps could be filled by encouraging need based training facilities in different areas. They said proposals in this connection would be examined and suitable steps be taken to resolve the issues confronted to remove the bottlenecks in efficient IP management.