Islamabad: Waterlines replacement project: CDA to submit Rs 8 billion

[Naveed Yaseen]

PC-1 to EAD soon
By Fazal Sher
ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) has prepared Rs 8 billion PC-1 of waterlines replacement project and will send it to Economic Affairs Division (EAD) within next few days,” a senior official told Daily Times on Wednesday.

He said some days ago the EAD had asked CDA to prepare the PC-1 and submit it to EAD before the coming budget.

He said a year ago the CDA had prepared Rs 6 billion PC-1 of this project but due to delay now its cost had reached to Rs 8 billion. He said at that time due to shortage of funds the CDA had sent a summery to EAD for provision of funds or arranging some donor for the project to replace decades old waterlines in the city. So far the EAD failed to arrange the donor and now it has asked CDA to prepare PC-1 and submit before the next budget, he added.

He said CDA had earlier planned to start work on waterlines replacement project in 2009 and complete it in 2012 on Engineering, Planning and Construction (EPC) basis.

The official said under the CDA plan entire water supply system of Islamabad would be replaced. “Replacement of waterlines in a developed city is not an easy task, therefore the CDA has decided to execute this project on EPC basis through an international firm, he said.

He said if CDA succeeded in replacing the old lines the current water resources would fulfil needs of the city residents, otherwise Islamabad would have to face severe water shortage in future. “Despite the directorate’s repeated requests to CDA high-ups for special attention to this project, no allocation was made for the project in the current financial year budget,” he said.

He said most of the waterlines in the city were very old and resulting in wastage of around 40 percent of total water supplied to the federal capital and every summer people have to face acute water shortage in the metropolis, he said.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_3