ISLAMABAD - State Minister for Communication Murad Saeed has presented report on the performance of his ministry and its allied departments in pursuance of the Prime Minister’s 100-day plan in a press conference at the NHA headquarters on Tuesday.
The report showed that the ministry retrieved 354 Kanals of land worth Rs1596 million during its anti-encroachment operation across the country while 76,105 saplings have been planted under same 100-day plan.
The report claimed the auction of 202 NHA’s vehicles under austerity measures against a total price of Rs208.85 million as a major milestone achieved. However, the officials inside the NHA termed the step a routine matter, arguing the previous government had also auctioned 513 vehicles as well in the last three years.
The report claimed the credit of a special audit of five delayed projects currently underway at the Auditor General of Pakistan Office.
However, the launch of mobile apps of NHA and Motorway Police, furtherance towards public-private partnership mode for infrastructure developments, E-tendering and E-Billing are some of the positive directions taken by incumbent government.
Meanwhile, the 20.09 per cent increase in the revenue of NHA by improved governance and innovative initiatives is a substantial achievement made by the authority in last hundred days. The total revenue of the authority during August to November 2017 was Rs7,030.61 million while the same in August to November 2018 stood at Rs8443.09mn.
The increase of revenue under the head of the Right of Way is extraordinary as the concerned formation collected Rs915.79 million this year as compared to 352.15 million of last year’s revenue with an increase of 160.06 per cent.
The minister informed that the NHA would convert a well-equipped rest house situated in Naran into a tourist resort.
Briefing the media persons, he said that they have successfully implemented 100-day plan in Communication Ministry and allied departments by achieving targets before the stipulated time period as per the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan.
However, if the indicators showing positive performance are critically evaluated then it is crystal clear that the figures shared in the shape of a colourful booklet are just an old vine in new bottle except rare substantial things.
The 100-day agenda was mainly an effort to hideout the poor performance on the primary function of National Highways Authority (NHA) by highlighting the secondary functions only.
The primary function of the NHA is to plan and build inter-provincial highways and motorways while the anti-encroachment and forestation is a secondary mandate of the authority.