By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The Booni-Buzund Torkhow road in upper Chitral is the one which could not be completed within the last ten years and it may continue for indefinite period given the allocation in the budget of the current fiscal year by the federal government.
The widening and blacktopping of the 35-kms long road was a public sector development project (PSDP) scheme of the communication and works department of the province work on which commenced in 2008 on approval of prime minister on the request of the then MNA from Chitral Shahzada Mohyuddin costing Rs. 350 million.
A source in the C&W department told Chitral Times that the detailed cost estimate (DCE) of the project proved to be defective and not in conformity with the topographical details of the road site due to which hardly 30 percent of the cutting rocks and excavation of earth was completed, the total amount of the project stood finished.
He said that the road project involved cutting of steep rock in five kilometers, construction of four bridges and land compensation to the owners of land from the villages of Istaru, Werkup, Rayeen, Shagram and Buzund which had not been included in the DCE of the project.
The project was abandoned by the department for a couple of years after the amount of its cost was utilized and the matter was again taken to the federal government in 2013 by Shahzada Iftikharuddin who had succeeded his father as MNA from Chitral and got the project included in PSDP.
The project was re-designed and detailed cost estimate was evolved as per which it was Rs. Rs.1108.42 million approved by the central development working party (CDWP) of the federal government on March 2015 but work was started in the next year as the provincial government had yet to decide about the executing agency of the project.
The former MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin said that federal government was to release the amount to the province in piecemeal as per procedure of PDSP in vogue and it was here that the problem popped up.
He said that the provincial department of finance did not apply for the next installment timely by fulfilling the codal formalities and bickering ensued between the federal and provincial government each time in this regard resulting in delay.
“The finance department further delayed the release of the funds received from the federal government to the C&W department by five to seven months each time and it was due to the fact that during the fiscal year 2016, only Rs. 100 million were utilized out of the released amount of Rs. 250 million and the rest was to be surrendered back.
The same situation prevailed during the following year and out of Rs. 200 million, the department of C&W could utilize only Rs. 100 million and the rest was lapsed back to the federal government”, he said.
He feared that the project will be delayed further as the federal government has released not a single penny for the remaining period of the current fiscal year while the department had demanded an amount of Rs. 156 million.
The former lawmaker said that work on the site has already been stopped and the construction firm has also demoblilized its machinery from the site while hundreds of land owners are also imploring the government for the payment of their land compensation.
