ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday expressed dismay over poor performance of Capital Development Authority (CDA) over prolonged delay in execution of New Parliament Lodges project.
The Speaker NA along with Chairman Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Noor Alam Khan visited Parliament lodges on Tuesday to inspect the progress on construction of 104 additional family suites including 500 servant quarters.
On the occasion, they were briefed by senior officers of CDA regarding issues and basic contours of the project construction of New Parliament Lodges.
Raja Pervez Ashraf criticizing the poor performance of CDA said that delay of more than a decade in completing this project is tantamount to severe negligence and non professionalism. He also instructed National Assembly Secretariat to arrange meeting with Chairman Senate in order to deliberate upon finding ways to complete this project. He also said that in order to complete such projects there is need to find out of box solution.
Chairman PAC Noor Alam Khan highlighted the significance of completing this project in Phases and stressed on the need to complete family suites on priority basis as more than seventy percent work has already be completed. He also mentioned the project of connecting parliament lodges with Parliament House through tunnel. He said that drainage issue is destroying the whole building and there is an urgent need to resolve this issue. Furthermore, the issue of parking and lift were also deliberated upon in the meeting.
The member planning CDA briefed NA Speaker and chairman CDA that CDA is the executing agency of the project and The project of construction of new Parliamentary lodges was to be completed in 2013. He also briefed that due to this delay the cost of the project has exponentially increased from Rs1600 million to Rs6.4 billion. The Speaker and Chairman CDA expressed dismay and displeasure over the non- professionalism on part of CDA for not completing this project even after more than a decade has lapsed.
