Islamabad: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has initiated the process to hire a consultant for the Ghazi Barotha water project, according to a news source. As per the publication, this project has been designed to resolve the many water shortage problems that have affected Islamabad and Rawalpindi in recent times.
The CDA has been seeking the services of a consultant for the Ghazi Barotha water project through print advertisements. Once a consultancy is hired, the process to conduct a revised study will be initiated, after which the CDA will engage private firms to initiate development work on laying a 45-kilometre long line to transmit water from Indus river to Ghazi Barotha.
This project is expected to help provide over 200 million gallons of water per day to the twin cities, and as per earlier reports, the CDA hopes to complete the project under the private-public partnership mode. In this regard, the private partner will be selected by inviting applications from private consultants.
Originally, the project was conceived back in 2006 to deal with the imminent water crises in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. However, its development was delayed by 13 years, and the costs kept climbing in this time; increasing from PKR 77 billion in 2006 to PKR 140 billion in 2019.
