PESHAWAR: Contractors belonging to Khyber Agency haveexpressedconcernover the prolonged delay in approval of tenders of various development schemes in the tribal region and warned that they will stage a sit-in outside the Governor House in Peshawar if the schemes are not sanctioned within next two weeks.

Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, Khyber Contractors Association`s president Iqbal Afridi said that over 30 development projects had been delayed due to non-approval of tenders for the last four months in Khyber Agency. He alleged that the public health division`s executive engineer was delaying the sanction of tenders of important development schemes, already approved by the governor about two months ago.

He said that the schemes had been delayed due to imposition of certain conditions on the contractors in the agency. He said that besides public health department, the C&W buildingdivision was also using similar tactics, causing delay in uplift projects.

The building division, he said, had not been issuing orders to contractors despite their tendering about two months ago, but no action was taken against them. He said that contractors had conveyed their reservations about the delay in the tendering process during a meeting with chief engineer Fata, but to no avail.

Mr Afridi said that the contractors had been facing financial losses in view of the volatile situation in the tribal agency. He demanded of the federal government and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor to order immediate approval of tenders of the development schemes, which had been stalled for the last four months.

He also called for initiating inquiry against the officials of the department concerned for unjustified cancellation of some tenders. He sought approval of Tirah package to save contractors from financial losses.Bureau Report