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Non-completion of new Balakot city project may trigger new human tragedy

Hopes of affectees of old Balakot completely vanish

By Khalid Mustafa
April 03, 2015
Nine years back ruinous earthquake smacked Pakistan and virtually swallowed Old Balakot City, and the residents of that place which was on the strong fault line were offered a New Balakot city in Mansehra district during Musharraf era, but the project to construct the new city that was scheduled to be completed by 2010 is still in the lurch and chances are not bright that it will get completed and provide ease to the affectees.
The five years delay in constructing the New Balakot city has virtually faded the hopes of the inhabitants of the ruined Old Balakot as they are forced to live in the temporary settlements which are not enough to cater to their needs. This may give birth to the new human tragedy if even a tremor of low intensity hits the area of old Balakot city.
The background interviews of the top officials of federal government, KP government and Erra (earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation authority) suggest that the new Balakot city has fallen prey to collective indifference of the central, KP governments and Erra. If such apathy continues to remain, it may breed new tale of human tragedies in old Balakot city incase new tremor hits the area.
The central government has already halved the budget of the Erra owing to which the staff of the project management unit has also been slashed down. And on top of that donors are drawing their feet from such messy project of New Balakot City.
It has also been observed that KP government and its attached departments in the meetings over the said project claim they in short period of time will get the land vacated, but this has been claiming for the last two year by PTI government. The political parties also seems evasive on the ground if the affectees of the tremor in old Balakot are rehabilitated in New Balakot City in Mansehra, then the population outlook in the area will get change which may impact their respective vote banks.
Though Imran Khan, popular leader of PTI, has recently announced to initiate a housing scheme in KP, but the project of new Balakot city which has been initiated in Musharraf era should first be completed so that the affected people of the 2005 tragedy in Balakot could be housed.
When in October 2005, the earthquake hit Pakistan, the world community offered $5.5 billion funding to rebuild the badly hit five districts of KP and 4 districts of AJK. The government of Pakistan prepared a special plan to develop new Balakot city in Mansehra district for which it paid Rs1.5 billion to the KP government for the acquisition of land. Nine year down the road and the new Balakot City is nowhere to be seen though a sum of Rs3 billion has been spent on it and there is no one to take the responsibility for non-completion of the project. Some 3900 families of the Balakot city that was completely ruined are still living in temporary settlements.
Brig Abu Bakr of Erra when contacted said that Erra wants to complete the project as soon as possible but it can only be possible if KP government manages to get vacated the land from the locals then the remaining structures of the New Balakot city will be built. He said that Erra’s chief General Azeem Asif kept on sensitizing the KP chief minister, KP governor and other top cornered departments chief about the importance of the project and early vacation of the land occupied by the local who have already been compensated. However, he admitted that General Asif Azeem has so far failed to get the time from prime minister for briefing on the project of new Balakot City.
The project got delayed by four years mainly because of non-procurement of the required land by the KP government, Brig (R) Zafar Hussain Wahla, DG Planning (Erra) has earlier told The News. “We have recently met the KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and top officials of his government and in the meeting it was decided that the provincial government would expedite the process to help acquire the remaining land within days,” Wahla said and added: “Still there is no progress.” He said that in 2006, the federal government gave Rs1.5 billion from President’s Relief Fund to the then chief minister of KP, Akram Durrani on the promise that KP government would help acquire the required land. The amount has been paid to the locals as per market rates, but they are still not ready to vacate the land.
When contacted Akram Durrani, now serving as federal housing minister, said: “Yes, I had managed Rs4 billion for the earthquake victims and this included money from federal government but I am not in a position to provide details.”
The project’s original cost was Rs12 billion but because of the problems in acquiring the land, the area of the project has now been reduced and if Rs2-3 billion are arranged then this project could be completed but not according to the original design, he said. “Now, we have omitted sectors C and F from the project in the wake of non-availability of land,” Erra official said. Wahla said that it is technically not true that Erra has suspended the work on the New Balakot City as the contractor’s machines and equipment are still there and he has not moved away. Instead you can say that the construction work has significantly slowed down. The government has so far spent Rs3 billion of which Rs1.5 billion have been given to the KP for acquisition of land and Rs1.5 billion have been spent on developing the infrastructure, sewerage and constructing the streets on some land that was acquired.
Zafar Wahla, who also looks after the project, told The News that the cost of the project has gone up by far more than 50 percent because of the inordinate delay in the execution of the project. “We are going to initiate the process of re-assessing the new cost of the project.”
He said that when the government of Pervez Musharraf had purchased the land the government faced no fiscal constraints. But unfortunately that land could not be handed over to Erra. “The matter of fact is that Erra could not get the land vacated and even if it is acquired then two more years would be needed to complete the project provided the required financial supply is ensured,” Wahla said. He said that at that time Libya had announced $20 million for the project. But after Maummar Qaddafi’s death the amount is no longer available.
“Under the new strategy we have offered the 350 local families occupying the land 2 plots of 10 marla each to each family as incentive for vacating the land,” Wahla said and added: “We have now decided to fist rehabilitate the locals who are occupying the land after which we will complete the project.”
According to the Erra official, under the original plan, the project was to be completed by July 17, 2010, but as of today only 50 per cent of the project could be completed.
The official said that from September 2009 to October 2010 the construction work remained suspended because of the murder of one person on the site over land dispute.