Ahsan Iqbal caused loss of Rs 50 billion in Multan-Sukkur Motorway
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ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed Thursday said Pakistan national exchequer suffered Rs50 billion due to misappropriation in Multan-Sukkur Motorway by the former rulers.
Talking to media persons informally here, he said in a video message he has challenged PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal to go to the court for verification of allegation of corruption against him. Murad Saeed said Ahsan Iqbal had claimed to send him a defamation notice but he has not sent any notice so far.
He said he would not let Ahsan Iqbal to forget. He said he had raised some questions to Ahsan Iqbal but he failed to reply any question.
The minister said he questioned about the character of Javed Sadiq, how Ahsan Iqbal had signed an MoU of a project in 2013 whose bidding had to be carried out in 2015.
He said Business Plan of NHA, leasing of NHA lands for raising funds and regulations for access from NHA controlled network has been approved and it would be announced in a press conference in a couple of days.
He said under leasing policy, 114 sites located in NHA’s ROW will be leased out while more 15 sites were also identified for leasing purpose.
It was further told that during the present government, the Sahianwala Service Area at Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad motorway was re-leased out, earlier NHA was getting revenue Rs 1.9 million per annum from it, while now it would receive Rs 78 million per annum.
Likewise Rest Area at Lahore-Abdul Hakeem motorway is also rented out during the present regime while rent of the Tandalianwala Rest Area is Rs 90.6 million per annum and Rs. 780000 per month. He said NHA was receiving Rs 4.5 million rent annually from Hakla Service Area at M-1, while its current rent is Rs50.77 million per annum and Rs42 lac per month. Such steps have resulted in increased revenue of NHA by Rs 9.54 billion.
He said transparency process of leasing out NHA’s Right of Way (ROW) for business purpose would help make the NHA self-sufficient.
The minister new ways and means were being explored to increase revenue level so that this organization could meet its financial requirement through its own resources.
He said special audit of five NHA projects was done and and reports have been completed.
The projects include Lyari Expressway, Khuzdar-Shahdadkot Highway(M-8), Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Highway (M-8), Lowari Tunnel (N-45) Civil Works, and Kalat-Quetta-Chaman Highway (N-25).
The minister said these five projects of National Highway Authority (NHA) were inordinately delayed, causing price escalation and other adverse effects on the governance.
