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Govt okays construction of library in I-8/3

By Imran Naeem Ahmad

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will establish a public library in Sector I-8/3 at a cost of Rs 59.86 million for which the government has now granted approval.

The go-ahead for the project, which is to be funded from the Public Sector Development Programme allocation of the HEC, was given during a recent meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP). The construction of the library over an area of 19,478 square feet will take two years.

Islamabad has just a few libraries including the National Library and in this light the announcement of another facility is indeed welcome news for the people. “I am glad to hear this,” said schoolteacher Muhammad Aurangzeb who however pointed out that there was a need to have not one or two but several libraries across town.

The specific objectives of the project will be to make payment to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the plots offered by them and construction of the library on one of them. The project also involves procurement of books, periodicals, newspapers and magazines in addition to furniture and fixture, execution of staff and provision of recurring staff.

According to the plan framework, the HEC has an allocation of Rs 93.500 billion for the next five years under the Medium Term Development Framework. Thus, this project will fall under the head of ‘Infrastructure Development’ in the five-year plan for higher education. Officials said the project was in line with the objectives of various others for higher education envisaged in the perspective plan 2001-2010 and Education Sector Reforms (ESR) Action Plan.

It is believed the library would help revitalise the reading habits of all sections of society especially the youth and in turn help in the lifelong learning and augment the facilities available in the educational institutions.

The need for setting up the library arose with the massive increase in the number of public and private universities and other institutions of higher education at the beginning of the new millennium. This led to increased activities in the higher education sub-sector.

The library project had been approved at a cost of Rs 35.091 million by the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP) meeting in April 2005. However, a revised PC-I was submitted with the area increased from 18,655 sq ft (@ Rs 750 per sq ft) to 19,478 sq ft (@ Rs 1,755 per sq ft).

Similarly, the cost of air-conditioning for the library was revised from Rs 0.750 million to Rs 3.020 million and equipment costs increased from Rs 1.688 to Rs 6.521. The money involved for procuring books was increased from Rs 2.155 million to Rs 3.436 million. Officials pointed out that currently there was obsolete physical and technical infrastructure at the universities for research in science and technology and there was a need to introduce cutting edge, market-based technologies at that level in consultation with the private sector.

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