Islamabad, (Anantnag), Apr 29: Eight years after the authorities missed the first deadline for the completion of the Municipal Shopping complex in this South Kashmir town, the work on the prestigious project is still going on at snail’s pace. 
 Officials blame paucity of funds for sluggish pace of work.
 The foundation stone of the first of its kind, Shopping Mall was laid by the then Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed in 2004 and 2005 was set as the deadline for the completion of the project; however eight years down the line only 20 shops have been completed out of a total of more than one 150.
 The complex to be established at a cost of Rs 10 crore was aimed at providing state of the art infrastructure to traders of the district and also to address the unemployment issue to some extent.
 “It was a welcome step from the state government as the project would have provided employment opportunities to many. I myself had booked a shop in the complex for my unemployed son, but unfortunately the complex hasn’t been completed yet,” said Ghulam Muhammad, a shopkeeper in the vicinity of the complex.
 People of Islamabad (Anantnag) had also pinned hopes that the Mall will fulfill the dearth of parking space in the town.
 “The basement parking of the Mall, when completed will have a parking capacity of at least seven to eight hundred vehicles and people were hopeful that the complex will provide a relief from the lack of parking spaces in the town,” said a Trader, Zahoor Magray.
 The officials however, cite the non-availability of funds as the reason for delay in the completion of the project. “The contactors of the Mall have already bills worth over a Crore pending with the department.”
 “We don’t have money to carry forward the work. We have spent Rs 2.5 Crore on the project and bills worth more than One Crore are pending, which leaves us high and dry,” said Abdul Majeed, Chief Executive Officer of the Municipal Council Islamabad (Anantnag).
 He added that the Municipal Council is now trying to raise money from the market wherein the people who want to have shops in the complex pay the money in advance and then the amount would be utilized in the construction work.
 “The auctions are going on right now and if the expected amount of money is raised from the market the Mall will be completed within a period of another two and a half years,” said the Chief Executive Officer.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST