LAHORE: The Punjab government has accorded administrative approval to two major projects, Rawalpindi Ring Road and Nulllah Lai Expressway & Flood Channel, worth Rs48.4bn, paving the way for the authorities concerned to launch tendering/bidding process.

“The administrative approval, generally known in the public sector as ‘AA’, is the last approval that legally allows the public sector departments/authorities and autonomous bodies to launch bidding, award tenders and complete the projects,” an official source in the Punjab government told Dawn on Sunday.

“The AA for the Rawalpindi Ring Road consists of the entire costs/estimates (land acquisition, civil works etc) while it is limited to land acquisition cost for the Lai Expressway alone since this mega scheme is to be implemented under public-private partnership that means the contractor/firm would be liable to spend money on construction of the project on its own and recover the same (with profit) within a certain period as agreed upon between the parties through toll collection,” the official, requesting anonymity, explained.

According to a letter issued a couple of days before, the Punjab Housing Urban Development & Public Health Engineering Department accorded AA to the Ring Road project in Rawalpindi.

“Following the approval from ECNEC on Dec 22, 2021 and a go-ahead from the P&D board, the government is pleased to accord AA to 38.30km long Rawalpindi Ring Road (R-3) for over Rs23.6bn subject to an assurance from the planning commission to fund the construction of additional lanes on M-1/M-2 as and when required,” reads the letter.

It says the merger plan submitted by the committee is to be implemented by the National Highway Authority (NHA), Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA).

The letter also seeks that the assumption in the PC-1 that the axle load management regime will be implemented by the NHA and the issues in this regard should be addressed by the consultants.

According to another letter, the government granted AA to the land acquisition for the Nullah Lai Expressway & Flood Channel for Rs24.9bn, subject to the condition that no expenditure on the project shall be incurred till the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, award of the project under PPP mode, obtaining no objection certificates (NOCs), if required, from the civic agencies etc.

The land acquisition for the project, according to the letter, includes the cost of land, relocation of houses, commercial structures, compensation for employment loss, relocation of utilities, monitoring & evaluation, administrative and contingencies cost etc.

“We have also asked the authorities concerned in Rawalpindi to quickly start the bidding process leading to the launch of civil works on the both projects,” the official added.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2022