Islamabad: New CDA chief sets the ball rolling from day one

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Muhammad Anis
The newly appointed chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Tariq Mehmood Khan, set the ball rolling from day one of assuming charge of his new office by directing the concerned officials to accelerate pace of development work on various projects.

“There is no change in priorities. I have directed CDA officials to accelerate work on ongoing projects and initiate work on schemes which are in planning and tendering stages,” Tariq Mehmood Khan told ‘The News’.

In the evening of his first day in the office on Tuesday, Tariq Khan engaged officers of the Engineering Wing and other departments after office timings to get briefing on ongoing and future projects and issuing necessary directives.

It would always be a challenge for the new chairman of the civic body to maintain the pace of development work on road, cultural and recreational projects which he inherited from Kamran Lashari.

Sources said that Tariq Khan has asked the Engineering Wing and project directors to furnish him a list of all projects along with day of start and completion time.

Tariq said he had directed that work on various projects like flyover at Citibank Chowk, Saidpur Tourist Village, second phase of the Lake View Park and Islamabad Highway should be expedited while all formalities should be completed in the shortest possible time to start work on the Kashmir Highway and 11th Avenue.

Similarly, he said, the shortage of water and energy saving would be other issues on which he would be focusing. “I have asked experts to look into the possibility of operating streetlights using solar energy,” he said.

Along with focusing on major issues, Tariq Khan said that he would not ignore minor problems concerning the public. For example, he asked the Road Directorate to carpet turnings linking 9th Avenue with I J Principal Road in front of the Rawalpindi Stadium Road.

He said his other priority would be to maintain discipline in all directorates of the CDA through punctuality and efficiency.

The newly appointed chairman said that he had also asked the concerned officials to plan his visit to various ongoing projects, sectors and markets to get firsthand knowledge of progress of work and problems of residents and traders.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=140267