ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has blamed the Sindh government for delay in execution of K-IV (Greater Karachi Water Supply Project).

The project was estimated to cost Rs25 billion about 15 years ago and it was decided at the time to fund the project on a 50:50 basis by the federal and provincial governments. The Centre had released about Rs10bn for the project until five-six years ago and then stopped further disbursements for lack of progress.

The project cost was revised to Rs120bn by the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) last year. L ast week, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had blamed the federal government for the project`s delay, saying the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf government had not made avail-able committed funds for wrapping up the project.

Reacting to CM Shah`s statement, Mr Umar said on Monday that the federal government fully stood by its commitments to the project, but the Sindh government had not processed the project as yet.

In a statement issued by the planning and development ministry, Mr Umar said the federal government had been following up with the government of Sindh to move the project forward. `However, the provincial authorities have yet to process the revised project document,` he added.

The minister said the project had been experiencing delays for quite some time due to design-related issues. The provincial government engaged Nespak to review the original design of the scheme. Nespak completed the design review and submitted its report to the Karachi Water and Sanitation Board.

Mr Umar said the Sindh government had appointed a technical committee in November last year to scrutinise the Nespak report and suggest a way forward. The committee submitteditsreporttothe provincialgovernment with a recommendation that work on the existing alignment maybe resumed with necessary modifications.

`Therefore, it is clear that throughout this period, the progress of the K-IV project is awaiting provincial government`s decision,` the minister said, adding that the Ministry of Planning and the Planning Commission had been constantly engaged with the Sindh government and had repeatedly asked the latter to process the revised project document for early execution of the project.

Mr Umar said the matter was also discussed during a meeting of the National Economic Council on June 10, wherein it was informed that the Planning Commission had allocated the entire amount of the remaining federal share for the project in the Public Sector Development Programme 2020-21. Further resources could be considered once the revised PC-I of the project was available, he added.

The minister said the federal government realised the significance of the K-IV project and was committed to playing its due role; however, execution of the project remained in the provincial domain, which needed to be expedited so that the citizens of Karachi could receive the water they badly needed.