Pakistan to cement Delhi’s infrastructure for Games

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New Delhi, Jul 4: contract conditions to address these issues raised by the builders.

“The state government had written to the Centre for permission to import cheap cement from Pakistan for construction of Commonwealth Games projects Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said.

“Pakistani cement is being presently used in the projects. There is cost escalation of projects, especially flyovers, stadium and low cost houses for the games,” the chief minister added.

The move is expected to increase total cement imports from Pakistan to 6 lakh tonne by July-end, compared to 3 lakh tonne imported during the last six months.

This will not only address India’s problem of supply constraints for the commodity, but will accelerate the pace of construction of the pending projects for Commonwealth Games. Talks are on to put in place a conveyor belt at the border, on which cement bags can be loaded from Pakistan, pass through an X-ray machine attached on the Indian side and then get unloaded. This would save the authorities the hassle of unloading sacks one at a time from trucks and screening them individually.

Officials said Pakistan produces 5-7 million tonne surplus cement every month. “Supplies from other side have been 3 lakh tonne so far. The amount of import will at least double by July-end. Cement prices have gone up from about Rs 150 for a 50 kg bag to about Rs 220-260 for a 50 kg bag in the past one year.