The fate of Rawalpindi district was in balance with regard to development and progress in the infrastructure last year, when the serious economic crunch of Punjab proved deadly to the district.

Despite high demands and high messages, a single mega project for development and public welfare could not be initiated. Ten mega projects with revised costs upwards have still been pending.

Due to non-allocation of funds for these 10 projects over the past three years, these projects have become white elephants as their estimated costs have been quieted by 40 to 60% due to the rising costs of building materials in the country’s history.

Among these 10 mega projects are Ghazi Brotha Water Supply, Ring Road, Leh Express, Daducha Dam, Wastewater Transportation Plant, Rawal Dam Filtration Plants’ Upgradation, Zacha Bacha (Mother-Child) Hospital, Chahan Dam Water Supply Scheme, Commercial Parking Plaza, and Like of the new pipeline with small diameter in the outdated cemented pipeline from Rawal Dam to Rawalpindi City.

Many more projects were also added to the annual development program (ADP), but not even a single crown of funds were released to any of them. Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), District Council and Municipal Corporation (MC) expressed their excuses to initiate these projects due to lack of accessibility of funds.

Rawalpindi should get 400 million liters of water a day through three stages of Ghazi Barotha water supply project to meet water requirements for the next 100 years. For this, a 60 km water pipeline of 80 diameter from Ghazi Barotha had to be added to Sangjani. Its estimated costs were RS17 billion in 2006, which has now risen to RS105b due to continuous delays.

Leh Express, a 30 km signal-free road project, was started in 2008, but was closed when PML-N came to power. Its estimated costs at that time were RS17B and have now reached RS100B today.

When moving forward, a wastewater treatment system had to be built to completely eliminate flooding in Rawalpindi City under Monsuner with an estimated cost of the RS30B in 2019, which has now reached the RS60B. During this, a large wastewater pipeline with 10 foot width should be laid on both sides of the lake.

Similarly, the 5,500 channel Gorakhpur -water cleaning system had to be created on the WASA country, but it was also delayed. The foundation stone of the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RRR) project was laid in 2022. The work started but was stopped when the government changed. For the past three years, the RDA officers and commissioners have submitted notifications of the RRR project every month, but delayed financing has “practically” stopped the key project.

As the estimated costs of the 38 km long RRR have increased by approx. 40%, and still the files for the preparation of its new estimated costs have become a rolling stone between Punjab and Federation. The Punjab Chief Minister set deadlines for the implementation of the project three times, but to no avail.

Daducha Dam Project was started in 2005 and work on it started in 2021. But it also suffered due to lack of funds as its estimated costs have increased by RS2B.

The new water supply project from Chahan Dam to meet the water requirement for the Water deficiency Association Council (UCS) and cantoic areas also faced a lack of funds at first. The estimated costs of the project were originally RS3B, which has now affected RS6B. This year, this key scheme was also stopped due to lack of research of funds.