Staff reporter
Islamabad
Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives has said that the federal government fully stands by its commitments relating to the Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-IV).
Responding to Chief Minister Sindh’s statement regarding ‘wrapping up’ of the project, he said the federal government had been regularly following up with the Government of Sindh to move the project forward, however the provincial authorities were yet to process the revised project document.
According to a press release issued by planning ministry, the minister said the project had 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 had 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 the federal government realized the significance of the K-IV project and was committed to play its due role, however, the execution of the project remained in the provincial domain, which needed to be expedited, so that the citizens of Karachi could receive the water they badly need.
