Uplift stopped, funds spent on Covid-19 control

LAHORE: In order to fight Covid-19, the Punjab government has stopped all kind of development funds of public utilities, local governments administration and other sectors, The News has learnt.

The organisations whose development funds were stopped included development authorities, Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) and etc. Sources said that funds of several ongoing projects were also stopped and this sudden stoppage may result in cost escalation of these projects as well as inconvenience to citizens.

Several roads are under construction in the provincial metropolis and stoppage of funds will keep the work incomplete causing inconvenience to the citizens. Similarly, several critical projects of Wasa Lahore, which should be completed before the coming monsoon will also be affected from the decision. This year Wasa planned to execute construction of an underground water tank along Lawrence Road, which gets submerged in two to three feet rainwater every monsoon.

A senior Wasa official said this project was very critical for the provincial metropolis as Lawrence Road was a sore point and all rainwater from Mozang Chungi, Fatima Jinnah Road, Masson Road, Temple Road, Shadman, Jail Road, Birdwood Road, China Chowk and other adjacent localities cascade towards Lawrence Road and finally accumulated outside the gate of Bagh-e-Jinnah as well as Lahore Zoo.

He said the estimated cost of this project was Rs149.874 million. He said every monsoon Wasa established an Emergency point at the depression point outside Bagh-e-Jinnah while as a temporary arrangement dewatering sets were also installed to drain out the accumulated water nearby Bagh-e-Jinnah.

As per the historic data of previous five years rain at this point, it was revealed that maximum daily rainfall was around 117mm (4,6 inch) so a storage/drainage capacity of this covered tank is designed at 1.5 million gallons.

Under this project, Wasa will collect storm water through Pipe Drain (Gully Gratings) and fill the storage tank and the stored rainwater will later be used in Bagh-e-Jinnah by Wasa and PHA trucks for various purposes.

Wasa’s Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz said that Agency had planned excavation of storage tank from Tuesday (yesterday) night. Talking about funds stoppage by government, he said so far no written instructions had reached his office.

On the other hand, Punjab Finance Minister Hashim Jawan Bakht admitted that development funds were stopped as the government had so far spent Rs25 billion on Covid-19 and more funds were yet to be incurred on this pandemic.