Report by Engineering Post
The Islamabad Information Technology (IT) Park, Pakistan’s digital strategy flagship project continues to hit headlines and is being criticized by official quarters concerned for the slow pace of its implementation and falling behind its scheduled completion.
Being funded through a concessional loan from South Korea was originally scheduled for completion in early 2025 but the multi-million dollar project was running behind suffering from months of delay.
The Technology Park Development project Islamabad, as per the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of the Federal Government as a project of the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) in December 2018 for implementation at an estimated cost of Rs 23303.048 million .
The official quarters have sternly warned South Korean contractor SAMHAN Construction Corporation, of strict action if the immediate progress is not ensured for the project completion at the earliest possible as it was already behind the schedule.
The project is located in Chak Shahzad over an area of 14.9 acres of land and is being implemented at a \total cost of US$ 88.8 million including US$ 12.5 million local contribution.
It is intended to attract the international firms by providing a one-step solution for all problems such as legal, tax, and infrastructure challenges while boosting nation IT exports. The facility spans over an area of 720000 square feet with adequate space for startups and anchor tenants, a data centre , an auditorium and parking for 1200 vehicles.
According to the information available from the official sources concerned, construction work is about 71 percent physically complete, with the gray structure finished but mechanical, electrical. and finishing works were lagging behind schedule while the official deadline was October 31,2025.The major works, according to the contractor, may only be done by December 2025, with final commissioning expected in February 2026.
The contractor has informed the official concerned about the multiple problems faced citing these as causes for the delay i.e. unprecedented monsoon flooding in 2022, import restrictions owing to Pakistan’s dollar crisis, and bureaucratic hurdles in securing financial instruments. The contractor reportedly also faced management challenges internally such as changing project managers nine times within 30 months, along with cash flow pressures due to the depreciation of the Korean currency.
The IT Park remains central to Pakistan’s vision of expanding its technology exports and attracting foreign investment,.
