Sindh: Plan to construct 2,300 labour flats shelved

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Tahir Hasan Khan
The plan to construct more than 2,300 flats in Sindh for poor workers has been put off without any reason.

Disclosing this, sources said that the contract for the multi-billion rupees project was to be awarded last month but the process was stopped through a notification at the eleventh hour even though the process to start construction work was almost done.

According to officials, bids were invited on September 9 and the contract was to be awarded on September 28. However, the process was halted two days before this date through a notification wherein the qualified contractors were informed that they would be intimated in this regard in due course of time.

Authorities in Sindh Workers Welfare Board (SWWB) avoided providing details but confirmed that the process had been halted.

SWWB had planned this multi-billion labour colonies project after Pakistan People’s Party came to power. The authorities concerned had completed the entire process with the consultation of experts in this regard. However, authorities said that the process had been stopped after a directive was received from Islamabad, adding that the centre did not share the reason of this decision.

In the first step, Federal Minister Khurshid Shah replaced the Director General of SWWB with his nominee and now the process to construct 2,300 flats has been stopped, sources said.

Details made available to The News showed that 1,024 flats were to be constructed in Sukkur, the constituency of Federal Labour Minister Khurshid Shah; 512 flats were planned in Badin, the hometown of Speaker National Assembly Fehmida Mirza and Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza; 512 flats were to be constructed in Nawabshah (now named as Shaheed Benazirabad), the hometown of President Asif Ali Zardari; and 256 flats were planned in Tando Muhammad Khan.

The officials, who did not want to be named, told The News that the federal minister was under pressure from his boss who wanted to award the contract of this project to his builder ‘friends’, while the qualified contractors of this project alleged that a huge kickback and commission would be drawn from this project as per tradition, adding that the authorities concerned now want to strike a fresh deal with the contractors for this purpose.

They claimed that the entire plan would be reprocessed just to give benefit to builder ‘friends’ in this project. However, sources said that a new package would be introduced under which every contractor would be awarded a Rs500 million contract.

Officials were of the view that this irregularity would double the cost of this project, which would certainly cause delay in the construction of 2,300 flats.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=201741