ISLAMABAD-The federal government has accused Sindh government for delay in Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-IV) saying the Centre fully stands by its commitment.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives has said that the federal government fully stands by its commitments relating to the Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-IV).
Replying to a question relating to Chief Minister Sindh’s statement regarding ‘wrapping up’ of the project, he said that the federal government has been regularly following up with the government of Sindh to move the project forward, however the provincial authorities are yet to process the revised project document.
The Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (Phase-1) was approved by the ECNEC at revised cost of Rs25.552 billion for supplying 260 MGD of water to Karachi metropolitan. Under the financing mechanism, the cost of the project was shared by the federal and provincial governments on the basis of 50:50 percent. The share of the federal government is Rs 12.755 billion while the total expenditure (released by the federal government) up June 20, 2020 is Rs 10.398 billion. The federal government has allocated Rs 800 million in the PSDP 2020-21. It is expected that after extending the scope of work of the project, its cost will further go up.
Asad Umar said that the project has been experiencing delays for quite some time due to design related issues. The provincial government engaged NESPAK to review the original design of the scheme. NESPAK completed the design review and submitted its report to Karachi Water & Sanitation Board (KWSB). The government of Sindh appointed a technical committee in November 2019, to scrutinize the NESPAK report and to suggest the way forward. The Technical Committee submitted its report to the provincial government with the recommendation that work on the existing alignment may be resumed with necessary modifications.
Therefore it is clear that throughout this period, the progress of the K-IV project is awaiting provincial government’s decision. The Ministry of Planning and Planning Commission has been constantly engaged with the provincial government and have repeatedly asked the latter to process the revised project document, for early execution of the project.
The matter was also discussed during the meeting of the National Economic Council held on 10th June, 2020, wherein it was informed that the Planning Commission has allocated the entire amount of remaining federal share for the project, in PSDP 2020-21. Further resources could be considered once the revised PC-I of the project was available.
The minister said that federal government realised the significance of the K-IV project and was committed to play its due role, however, the execution of the project remains in the provincial domain, which needed to be expedited, so that the citizens of Karachi could receive the water they badly need.