Daily Times

KARACHI: Most of the 30 infrastructure development projects for which Sindh has released Rs150 million to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have already been undertaken by the provincial government, and none of these projects is mentioned in the KMC’s annual development plan, Daily Times has learnt.

The Finance Department of Sindh has released the amount, 25 percent of the estimated cost of these projects, to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation on the request of the acting Metropolitan Commissioner.

Sources in the KMC Planning and Budget Finance Department say that the projects exist on papers only. Most of these have been completed already under the provincial government’s development works in the city.

Meanwhile, KMC’s Planning and Finance departments have written to the Engineering Department seeking details of all these 30 development projects including their location, approval date, PC-I, as well as working and progress reports.

Speaking to Daily Times, Shahab Amwer, the Engineering Department director general, and Nayyab Saeed, director accounts, say that none of the 30 projects is mentioned in the district ADP, adding that no one in the department ever requested funds for such projects.

“The amount has been released on special ground [by the Sindh government] and specific comments can be given only after we have received details of the projects”, they said.

When asked that the projects for which funds have been released were not mentioned in the district ADP and were in fact completed by the provincial government, Dr Asghar Abbas, the acting MC, said the amount had been sanctioned from head of ‘lump-sum provisions’ of Rs 5 billion. He said the KMC was the sole executing authority to fulfill all legal formalities for taking into consideration development schemes, vowing that completion of these development projects would be ensured by the civic entity.

Niaz Soomro, the special secretary mega projects at the provincial Local Government Department, says that it is the responsibility of the KMC to run development projects. Under the Sindh Local Government Act of 2013, the civic entity can undertake projects worth Rs200 million on its own.

The projects include Abdullah Haroon Road, Empress Market road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, Regal Chowk area, Cantt Station Road, Civil Lines, MT Khan Road, Burns Road and roads near Sindh Secretariat, and in Sultanabad, Gizri, Clifton, Aram Bagh, and Garhi Ghata.

Published in Daily Times, February  22^nd 2018.