After the development authority failed to kick off the projects, money to the tune of Rs1.145 billion released for three massive projects—the Kutchery Chowk Remodeling Project, Leh Expressway, and Ring Road—in the garrison city was returned to the provincial exchequer.
According to a senior RDA official, the provincial government last year allocated Rs 1 billion for Kutchery Chowk, Rs 50 million for land acquisition for the project to build a flood channel and the Leh Expressway, Rs 50 million for a feasibility study for the Leh Expressway and a flood channel, and Rs 42 million for the Ring Road.
The funds were still in the civic body’s accounts even though the RDA failed to begin the projects; however, the caretaker government requested that the development authority return the sums authorized for these projects. The official stated, adding that the money will be provided after the changes in government, “The new government would decide the fate of these projects after the Punjab Assembly elections.”
He explained that the province-wide ban on new development projects that the provincial government had enacted would not affect the ongoing projects.
On the other hand, a senior member of the provincial administration claimed that the caretaker government was not authorized to initiate any new development initiatives or to make funding allocations. He claimed that the caretaker administration was put in place to oversee provincial operations up to fresh elections. He stated that the NA-61 and NA-62 by-election schedules had been released, and the 19th of March had been set aside for voting. After the timeline was revealed, no new construction could be initiated in the district.
According to a senior RDA official, the civic organization has requested funding for these “ongoing projects” in a letter to the finance division. The RDA was prepared to begin these three initiatives, he noted. The Punjab finance department, he claimed, had not yet responded to the letter. The Kutchery Chowk project was prepared to begin, and Frontier Works Organization had already been given the contract in this regard.
The RDA official believed that the Rawalpindi Ring Road project had a little snag since the employment of a foreign consultant to select one of the two alignments for the project had been requested by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
When reached, RDA Director General Saif Anwar Jappa stated that money had to be returned because the caretaker for the province canceled funding for new development projects all over the province.
He announced that the Rawalpindi Ring Road would be discussed with Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi in the upcoming week. He continued, “We have placed an advertisement in the Khaleej Times, a newspaper published in Dubai, to request submissions for a third-party confirmation of the alignments.
He noted that the selection of a consultant firm would take more than three months to complete, but that if the acting Chief Minister gave his approval, RDA would move on. He added the project would start after the formation of a new government in the next fiscal year.
