ISLAMABAD: About 40 major infrastructure projects of the federal government worth more than Rs847 billion have hit snags because of a host of political, financial and managerial shortcomings, causing huge cost overruns.

`These 40 projects have officially been described as problematic and slow-moving,` a senior government official told Dawn, showing a report prepared by the Planning Commission. In some cases, the project costs have increased by more than 400 per cent, he said.

There may be genuine reasons, but the situation puts a question mark on the country`s planning, implementation and monitoring mechanism for development, the Planning Commission official observed.

He said the latest situation about these projects had been brought to the knowledge of the prime minister and the Public Accounts Committee. The prime minister, he added, would announce speeding up of some of these infrastructure projects when he visits the provinces shortly. A countrywide tour of the prime minister is reportedly being arranged.

The report shows many projects had missed their implementation schedule and completion deadline because of design problems, inadequate funding, land acquisition problems, the law and order situation and court cases.

The official, however, said it would be unfair to attribute delays to these factors alone because often the projects are slowed down when the government decides to reduce the size of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in an attempt to contain fiscal deficit amid stagnant tax collection.

Over the last two decades, the tax targets were never achieved and PSDP allocations were fully utilised only once or twice, he said.

Critical projects Among the projects that were moving slowly or missed their completion deadline include critical schemes like the Makran Coastal Highway, Lyari Expressway and Chashma Nuclear Power Project. For example, a bridge over the river Indus at Larkana worth Rs9.22bn, launched in 2005, was not completed by the deadline of Nov 2009 because of design problems and inadequate funding.

The Rs129bn Karachi Circular Railway project, which was supposed to be completed by June this year, has also been included in the `problematic projects`. Due to rehabilitation issues, the grant allocation for the project has already been cancelled by the Japanese government.

The official said in some cases the projects were included in the development programme due to political considerations without completing procedural formalities and then faced delaying tactics at the ministries of finance and planning.

`Cost overruns, project delays, waste of public money and missedbenefits are a few outcomes of slowmoving development activity. This is a classic example of misdirected public investments,` said the official. The quality of development carried out in the provinces is also poorer than federal projects, he observed.

Ballooning costs The official said an analysis of the development programme showed that the average per-scheme cost in the PSDP had gone up from Rs950m in 2007 to Rs1,650m in 2011, showing a cost overrun of more than 70pc. Setting aside all other reasons, inflation alone contributes 10pc to the increase every year, he said.

The Planning Commission report showed that the Rs28.5bn 184km Faisalabad-Khanewal Motorway, started in 2008 and supposed tohave been completed by Dec 2010, was still under construction because of land acquisition matters.

The Rs9bn Peshawar Northern Bypass also could not be completed by Jan 2010 due to law and order problems and shortage of funds.

Likewise, an extension of the Khanewal-Multan Motorway was still way behind schedule while the strategic Rs18.5bn Gwadar-TurbatHoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar-Ratodero project of 850km and GwadarTurbat-Hoshab Motorway, which was to have been completed by Dec 2013, was way behind schedule.

The project is very important for linking Gwadar port to northern parts of the country.

Similarly, the Rs12.5bn KalatQuetta-Chaman project, funded by the Asian Development Bank and having a deadline somewhere in 2008, has been stuck up because ofthe law and order situation while an Rs8.2bn section of the IslamabadMuzaffarabad Road dualisation project, meant to be completed by Dec 2009, was suffering from funding problems.

The report also highlighted the fact that the Rs15bn rehabilitation project for N-5 Highway that should have been completed by June 2009 was still moving slowly due to earthquake, floods and law and order problems. The Rs26.5bn realignment of the Karakoram Highway (KKH), that should have been ready by Jan 2012, had also missed its deadline due to delay in lowering of the water level of the Attabad lake.

A Rs31bn rehabilitation of another section of the KKH in GilgitBaltistan and Azad Kashmir, which was to be completed by 2011, was not ready yet because of the security situation and land acquisitionproblems. The Rs22.5bn widening of the 460km Hoshab-Nag BasimaSurab Road has been hampered due to law and order problems even though its completion date was September 2009.

The report said work on two units of the Rs190bn Chashma Nuclear Power Project was also behind schedule. A Rs22bn-worth chemical processing plant has also been delayed beyond June 2013 due to funding problems.

The report said a Rs13bn doubling of the railway track from Khanewal-Raiwind section and Rs16bn procurement/manufacturing of 202 new design passenger coaches had also been significantly delayed. Likewise, a Rs56bn project for procurement of 150 diesel engine locomotives and a Rs12bn project for procurement of 500 highcapacity bogie wagons were also facing problems.