Road building in a mess
Shahzada Siraj Ulmulk
The importance of road infrastructure projects in Chitral cannot be overstated, especially considering the region’s historical neglect by the government.
These projects are vital for improving connectivity of the main road into the two districts and also into remote areas within the Chitral district, which have long been marginalized.
By investing in road infrastructure, the government cannot only address the historical disparities but also unlock the valley’s immense tourism mineral and hydroelectricity potential. Enhanced connectivity will make it easier for tourists to explore the valley’s stunning landscapes and cultural heritage, boosting the local economy.
• Project Delays: These projects are significantly behind schedule. (reasons need to be investigated)
• Environmental Damage: Kelash Valley Project is dumping cut material in the river ( just as it had been done on the Chitral-Shandur road) causing sedimentation and potential flooding risks for people in Ayun. Also people on the downstream are facing drinking water issues due to this negligence.
On the Chitral-Shandur road this cut material blocked the Mastuj river and forced the Lotkuh river to overflow its banks causing immense damage to public property including the WAPDA power house at Singoor. The contractor or NHA has yet to pay for those damages though people have lost their houses and other property.
• Unethical Billing Practices: Bill of quantities is inflated, with easy tasks prioritized and difficult ones removed. Also to date much variation orders are made on both the Chitral-Shandur and the Kalash valley projects. If true this needs to be investigated.
• Suspicious Payments: Large advance payments have been made to contractors, with limited work completed on CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR road. Although work against Rs700 million is still not completed.
• Poor Construction Quality: There are concerns about the quality of work on CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR, including failing pavements and retaining structures. (Videos will be provided at any stage)
• Consultant Incompetence: The consultant staff on CBMS is allegedly unqualified and rarely visits the project site.
• Lack of Quality Control: The quality assurance and control program is not being implemented effectively.
Concerns Regarding Maintenance Activities:
• Misuse of Funds: There are questions about how maintenance funds for District Chitral were spent in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
• Favoritism in Contracts: Contracts have been awarded to favourite contractors who have only sublet the work to others who in turn have sublet it further. No wonder the work is so substandard.
• Substandard Maintenance Practices: Maintenance work may be focusing on invisible areas (e.g., below the road) rather than directly repairing the road itself. This raises concerns about the quality of work and potential for inflated bills for unseen repairs. It’s really important to note that the road from Ashirat to Baradam is in very bad condition. Maintenance staff are more focused on building Retaining walls below the road rather than fixing the road itself. This is because the work below the road is not visible, while the quality of the walls may not be easily seen.
Examples of this include the expensive wall (100 Million work awarded on single source) built in Ashiret, which was awarded to an unknown contractor without following proper rules of PPRA. If these 100 Million were spent on Baradam to Ashlret, the road may not have been in the very poor condition in which we find it presently.
• Potential Corruption: There are suspicions of poor quality work, inflated bills, and a lack of oversight in maintenance contracts, particularly for the Ashiret to Baradam road section.
Actions Requested:
• A thorough investigation into the allegations of corruption and mismanagement in projects like the Kalash Valley, CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR road and the maintenance activities in District Chitral.
• Examination of bill of quantities, payments made, and project timelines for Kalash valley and CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR road.
• Assessment of the quality of construction work on CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR.
• Investigation of consultant qualifications and site visit practices.
• Verification of the implementation of quality control measures.
• Audit of maintenance funds used in District Chitral over the past three years.
• Scrutiny of the bidding process and contractor selection for maintenance projects.
• Detail of the Laboratory equipments purchased so far against bill no 07
• Revision in construction schedule and submission of original construction schedule.
• How much payment has been made in cutting in both projects and whether they are as per bill of quantities specified in the original contract
• To-date, how much variation orders are made in both contracts of Kalash and CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR ROADS.
• The comparison in the original bill of qualities and the revised bill of quantities.
On investigation it will be found that all those items which are good in rate would have increased while the quantities which are either difficult or have less rate, will be deleted in bill of quantities so to give full advantage to the contractors.
• How much advance payments are made to the contractors in both projects . As per our knowledge, more than 700 million payments is still pending on the contractor side on Chitral Booni Shandur project and despite of the advance payments, the contractor has stopped the work.
• Original and revised rock classification on which the cross section of cutting are based.
• The change in the original cross sections and revised cross sections and why the extra payments are made to the contractors.
• Verification needs for all the retaining wall in which the cross sections and the quantities are paid as per their original quantities on site.
• Who were subcontractors in the project in Chitral Booni Shandur.
• Physical progress versus financial progress
• It is also to be noted that as per our knowledge that on CHITRAL BOONI SHANDUR project, most of the retaining walls which were constructed earlier by the communication and works department, are paid to the contractors as fudge payments. In this case, the local government or the old employees of the communication & works can easily identify the retaining walls or other structures which were made by them in past and now paid to the contractors of NHA
• How much escalation has been paid to the contractor till date.
• The advance payments can easily be identified from the check request, on investigation it can be found out that the check request will be not complete.
• Most of the trainee engineers lower staff in consultant are ghost employees who have received salary but have not been present on the site.
• Poor quality of work
• The quantity of all works needs to be investigated especially asphalt work and water bound. The actual thickness on site is too much less as compared to the thickness paid to the contractor (Especially asphalt and water bound/sub base) Similarly irregularities will be found in length and width.
• Fudge payments of Retaining walls in Routine maintenance and Emergency maintenance.
• Tremendous machinery work paid as fudge payment.
• No Tests of the work are done to date Especially Asphalt.
Our organisation of voluntary workers called Chitral Development Movement (CDM) has been regularly seeing and recording these irregularities. We did not report them out of fear that NAB FIA Anti corruption etc may step in and stop this work (as has been done in the past) which will be more detrimental to our district.
Even more detrimental than the poor quality of work listed above. Moreover these big contractors have a sizeable budget kept aside to “pay” for such inquiries. Such contractors and their masters only use such inquiries to their benefit to stop work and consequently ask for increase in rates.
So the last thing we would want is the work to stop for any reason. Already we have a short working period before winter sets in each year.