ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has sought Rs5 billion in the 2024-2025 budget for the construction of the 10th Avenue project, which has been moving at snail’s pace and remains unfinished.

The project worth Rs10.2 billion was launched in 2022 through the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) with the federal government’s funding.

The government had released only Rs400 million for this project in the ongoing fiscal year. Now Rs8.6 billion is required for this project, out of which the CDA has urged the federal government to allocate Rs5 billion in next fiscal year’s budget.

“Since this project is a federal government-funded project, we want the federal to earmark Rs5 billion in next fiscal year,” a CDA officer said.

Meanwhile, a retired engineer of the civic body said: “Instead of carrying out this project in pieces, the government should release the entire amount of Rs8.6 billion and direct the CDA to get the project completed in fiscal year 2024-25 to avoid cost escalation. Otherwise, I fear, the cost of this project will go up.”

The project was supposed to be completed in March this year but missed the deadline, and still the progress on the project is very slow. So far, around 25pc of the work has been completed, and the CDA recently extended the deadline to December.

Recently, the contractor, National Logistic Cell (NLC), had requested the civic body for a price adjustment formula, stating that its quoted bid rates were practically no longer viable.

CDA officials told Dawn that a shortage of funds was the major reason behind the delay, as so far less than Rs3 billion (including Rs400 million) have been released for the project.

Recently, NLC informed the CDA that inadequate fund and allocations in pieces were one of the main reasons for the delay. Besides slow shifting of utility services from the site was another cause of slow pace of work.

Similarly, it informed the CDA that because of the delay and price hike, the quoted rates were no longer viable and required revision “or implementation of the price adjustment formula approved by PEC and Ecnec in 2023.”

Currently, the project is in progress at a snail’s pace, and recently, work on the railway bridge has been started near the service road of I-9 and I-10.

The project was started by the PTI government. Initially, the government had earmarked over Rs1 billion, but in the fiscal year 2022–23, only Rs350 million were set aside for it. Then the PDM government released Rs1.3 billion, and in the fiscal year 2023-24, only Rs400 million were earmarked.

The project has two phases: in the first phase (currently underway), a 5km road is being constructed from Katarian Bridge on I.J. Principal Road to Srinagar Highway near the intersection of G-9 and G-10. In the second phase the construction of the project will be taken up from Srinagar Highway to Margalla Road.

Moreover, CDA will have to shift 1,400 houses of Rimsha Colony, an informal settlement in H-9, to some other place as the colony will be affected by the project.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2024