FWO refuses to return Rs 276 million to Punjab government

A project of 10.1 kilometres long 4-lane expressway along Nullah Lai in Rawalpindi with an estimated cost of Rs 17.77 billion had been shelved in 2010, but Frontier Works Organisation has refused to return Rs 276 million to the government of Punjab that it had received for mobilisation of machinery and other equipment in 2007-08.
A Senate Functional Committee on Government Assurances was informed this on Monday during its meeting held here in the Parliament House in the chair of Senator Sajid Mir. Secretary Planning and Development informed the committee that when the project was approved in 2007, it was decided that federal and Punjab governments would share cost of the project equally.
He said the federal government also released Rs 2.1 billion from 2007 to 2009 for the project, but it stopped funding for the project since 2010 after seventh National Finance Commission Award due to tight fiscal position of the federal government. The secretary said that Punjab government was asked to finance the project from its own resources, but it received no update on it so far.
Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Azmat Mehmood informed the committee members that the project was to be completed in 2 years on a total length of 10.1 kilometres, and some Rs 681.52 million were also released to Land Acquisition Collector in 2008 for the land acquisition.
The project was to be completed in 10 different phases but the work could be completed only one package of the expressway, he said, adding that Rs 276 million were also given to FWO for mobilisation of their machinery for the project. He said the FWO has refused to return the funds and went into litigation against Punjab government, claiming that it had utilised all the funds released to it during the period. He said the court has fixed April 11 for the case and also appointed an arbitrator to decide the case.
A representative of the Punjab government informed the committee members that cost of the expressway project has now escalated to Rs 26 billion while total urban development budget of the provincial government is Rs 17 billion. Senator Chaudhry Tanveer Khan lamented that work on the important project was shelved just due to different priorities of the successive governments.
He urged the commissioner Rawalpindi Division and Secretary Planning and Development to prepare a feasibility study of the Nulla Lai project as this has become a source of many diseases for the residents living across it. He said that he would take up the issue with the provincial government too as the expressway could serve as an alternative route and bypass to avoid congestion in the Rawalpindi city.
The committee chairman recommended that money available with Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) should be utilised for designing and development of the Nullah Lai. He also directed the Punjab government representatives to pursue the case against the FWO in the court to retrieve the funds as the project had already been shelved.