KARACHI, Dec 28: The city district government Karachi has drastically changed at least three agreements — involving billions of rupees each — it entered into with different parties on key projects, Dawn has learnt.
According to highly placed sources, tall claims were made when the agreements were signed with officials saying that the accords would help change the city dramatically and Karachi would be comparable to top developed cities of the world.
The agreements were, however, changed without making any public announcements despite the claims that it was done “in the people’s interest”.
Besides almost overturning the agreements, the important thing is that nothing tangible has been done on the ground that could bring some hope that these projects would eventually be implemented.
IT Tower
The first agreement pertains to the construction of the IT Tower next to the Civic Centre in Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The CDGK entered into the agreement with a couple of Dubai-based companies – one of which was of Malaysian origin and the other was owned by some Indians — which, according to the announcements, were supposed to bring in over $200 million to build a modern 47-storey building that would house call centres, a hotel, offices, shopping centres, parking spaces etc on University Road.
When the fact that one of the companies involved had Indian interests came to the surface, the security apparatus of the country became active and the city government, which was moving ahead with the plan as scheduled, was asked to drop the Indian company if it wanted to pursue the project.
The CDGK tried to make the people concerned understand the issue, but eventually it was made to alter the agreement. With the Indian company out of the picture, the Malaysian company wanted a complete change in the agreement and under the reviewed arrangements now the Malaysian company is just a contractor that would construct the building for the CDGK, and the city government, which just had to provide the land on which the building was to be raised, now has to generate the require funds – roughly Rs16 billion — from its own sources to finance the project.
It is no wonder that an almost 50-foot deep ditch had been dug up on the land a few months ago but no construction has been initiated. Even the building plan has not been approved by the Karachi Building Control Authority — a mandatory requirement before any construction could be started.
Garbage-lifting project
The second landmark agreement was signed with a Chinese company giving it the contract to collect garbage at people’s doorsteps along with solid waste from all over the city and dispose of the waste at landfill sites located outside the city.
The total solid waste that the city generates daily comes to around 8,000 tons and the CDGK is to pay $20 per ton. The long-term agreement is to run for over a couple of decades, the amount involved for around 20 years totals to over $1 billion.
The CDGK at the time of entering into the agreement had said that as its employees were collecting garbage inefficiently, a major chunk of solid waste remained littered in the city. Hence the Chinese company had been brought in so that the city could be cleaned efficiently.
However, nearly a year down the line, no concrete work is seen on the ground which could suggest that the project would start anytime soon. A blame game has begun between the CDGK and the Chinese company. The CDGK maintains that the Chinese firm is not moving according to the agreement, has neither carried out development work, nor is bringing in the required foreign exchange or equipment etc.
The Chinese company for its part says it has not been provided with the work order, funds, etc to start the work. In the meantime, with the dollar’s exchange rate going up, the CDGK also wanted to renegotiate the $20 per ton price, which, with certain conditions, was brought down to around $15 by the Chinese company. But as both parties did not agree to it, the proposal was cancelled and currently the price is hovering at $20 per ton again.
Cement factory
The third agreement was entered between the CDGK and a cement plant. The city government had agreed to sell its solid waste, which it has already sold to the Chinese company, to a cement factory located on the Super Highway. The CDGK had agreed to sell over 3,000 tons of solid waste daily from its Surjani Town landfill site at over Rs500 per ton and the garbage was to be delivered to the cement factory.
However, later the agreement was altered and now the cement factory would pay around Rs230 per ton and would itself carry it from the landfill site to the factory.
A huge piece of land would be given free to the cement factory at the landfill site to set up its facilities there. The land is to return after the completion of the contract period. The cement factory agreement with the CDGK clearly mentions that a no-objection certificate from the Chinese company would be provided by the city government. The Chinese company has, however, not issued the NOC.
The cement factory people had said that currently their factory used coal as fuel but as the price of the commodity had skyrocketed, they had opted for the alternative fuel — solid waste. But now with the international hydrocarbon prices standing at almost one-third of the earlier peak prices, the future of this agreement also seems uncertain.
The sources said that all these projects/issues are either being dealt with directly or from behind the scenes by a highly influential and well-connected junior customs department official working on deputation on a higher grade post in his “own pay and scale” – which under a cabinet decision is not allowed – in the CDGK.
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