Cost of Naulong dam escalates by 143pc.

Byline: Fawad Yousafzai

Islamabad -- The cost of Naulong dam in Balochistan has escalated by more than 143 percent because of delay of almost 11 years in construction, official documents reveals.

The cost of the Naulong Dam has been increased from Rs11.7 billion in 2009 to Rs28.47 billion, said the documents available with The Nation.

As per the original PC-I of the project approved in 2009, the total cost of the project was Rs11.7 billion with the Foreign Exchange Component (FEC) of Rs1.33 billion. Similarly in the 2nd revised PC-I approved in 2015 the cost was increased to Rs18.03 billion.

Now once again the cost of the project was upward revised to Rs 28.47 billion. The Asian Development Bank would provide 80 per cent (Rs 20.13 billion) funds for the project. The remaining 20 percent will be shared by the federal government and government of Balochistan.

The Federal government would provide Rs5.032 billion and the provincial government will provide Rs3.31 billion.

The project was approved by ECNEC in 2009 and had a completion time of four years, however work on the project was not initiated. The original PC- I was revised due to high bid cost of Rs26 billion received in April 2010.

The 1st revised PC-I was approved in August 2012, however the same once again could be executed due to high bid cost received supposed to be completed in four years. WAPDA had submitted 2nd revised PC-I of the project with Rs26.547 billion. The project was discussed in CDWP

The project is located on Mula River at Sunt about 30 km from Gandawa City in District Jhal Magsi of...