Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The target of constructing roads and highways has not been achieved due to non utilisation of funds of over Rs 27 billion by the National Highway Authority (NHA). This has been revealed in a report submitted to the parliamentary committee to scrutinise the NHA performance.

Over Rs 90 billion funds were provided to the NHA during the financial year 2014-15 and it has utilised only Rs 62.43 billion which constitutes 51.9 per cent of the total funds.

According to documents available with the Daily Times, the NHA was to make recoveries amounting to Rs 16.39 billion from different sources during the financial year 2014-15 but it has made recoveries to the tune of Rs 14.98 billion only. This way only 8.64 per cent recoveries have been made out of the total recoveries.

It may be mentioned that the FWO has been assigned the task of collecting toll tax on the Lahore-Islamabad motorway illegally. Under the new agreement the FWO will collect toll tax on M-2 for 20 years.

According to the report weighing centres have been set up on highways and motorways. Rs 178 million have been spent on repair and operation of these machines while they have yielded an income of only Rs 108 million. The NHA officers have caused a loss to the tune of Rs 70 million to the national kitty under this head. No inquiry into this loss has been launched so far.

The report said Rs 27.14 billion had not been spent out of the total funds released against the development budget under the PSDP during the fiscal year 2014-15. This factor has led to non achievement of target pertaining to construction of development projects during the last year.

The report has also revealed that funds amounting to Rs 25.50 billion were released from the national exchequer for the construction of the Karachi-Lahore motorway but the officers have deposited these funds in specific bank accounts rather than purchasing the land.

The PML-N government has not succeeded in starting the Lahore-Karachi motorway project despite the release of hefty funds from the national coffers. Prospects are there that these funds may be wasted.

The arrogant bureaucracy of the NHA has spent funds of Rs 620 million illegally. They have made a suspicious claim of spending funds amounting to Rs 620 million on such projects which were not included in the PSDP. Neither permission has been obtained from the respective forum nor have the higher authorities been taken into confidence for spending the funds to the tune of Rs 620 million.

It has been alleged that the officers of the NHA have incurred expenses to the tune of Rs 1.84 billion on seven projects without obtaining permission.

The report said that Rs 190 million had been spent illegally on the Peshawar bypass project while Rs 33 million had also been spent illegally on the renovation of the Kohala-Muzaffarabad Road. Five million rupees have been spent illegally in the name of the Rohri-Punnu Aqil Road. Expenses amounting to Rs 100 million were incurred on the construction of Jacob Abad-Dera Allahyar Road which has also been declared as irregular.

Expenses amounting to Rs 10 million were incurred on the construction of Sarhad Bypass in Dharki, six million rupees were spent on Wadoor Bridge and Rs 1.49 billion were spent on the construction of the quake devastated E-35 highway and they have also been declared as illegal.