ISLAMABAD: A subcommittee of the Senate Standing Committee on Communication on Wednesday directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) to ensure transparency in contractsawarding process.

The directives have been issued af ter members of the committee showed displeasure over data regarding the NHA contracts system submitted by the authority and directed the ministry to provide a detailed summary of the pre-qualification and bidding process.

Convener of the committee Senator Saifullah Abro stressed that the pre-qualification process should be transparent and bids awarded on merit.

He directed the NHA to follow international standards in auctioning contracts.

The subcommitteereviewed various completed and ongoing projects by the National Highway Authority (NHA)from20080nwardsto identify cost overruns.

The committee was informed that there were 33 projects that were completed at increased cost, which was almost 13pc more than the initial bid.

Main reasons for increased costs of projects were difference between financial funds and financial phasing in PC-I, cost escalation, additional scope of work and land acquisition issues.

The committee reviewed the Larkana-Khairpur bridge project; LakhiNaudero-Larkana project, Zhob-Mughal Kot project and the LarkanaMoenjodaro Road project and Hyderabad-Sukkur Road project. Staff Reporter