Development Work in Full Swing at Parade Site

[Salman]

Islamabad: Development work is in full swing at the new parade site in Shakarparian, where a parade for Pakistan Day will be held on March 23. Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) is undertaking the ground levelling and other infrastructure development, while the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is the executing agency of the project.

The civic authority will develop three thoroughfares from the parade site to Islamabad Highway and will also carry out landscaping. According to a news source, the CDA has approved a budget of Rs 248 million and has requested the federal government to contribute 50 percent of the total budget. The CDA has already spent Rs 90 million on levelling the area.

The news source reported further that the decision to develop an exhibition site at Garden Avenue was taken in 2007. However, the Pakistan Day parade will be held here for the first time seven years after the decision.

An official of the CDA’s Engineering Wing told reporters that the federal government would also benefit from the site by holding various events there. He added, however, that the federal government had not yet released payment to the CDA despite assurances.