Islamabad: CDA plans to develop mini cities in Zone IV

[Naveed Yaseen]

Noor Aftab
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) would seek help of the federal government to develop mini cities in Zone IV that are expected to help cope with various challenges, especially related to increasing population in the capital city.

“Six mini cities will be developed including media, education, Information Technology, business, medical and sports in Zone IV. The main purpose of such an effort is to turn major activities towards this area from urban residential sectors where civic problems are increasing day by day,” sources in CDA told ‘The News’ here Friday.

Non-conforming use of residential units in developed residential sectors have led to various civic and security problems for the concerned authorities, who want to resolve this issue once and for all.

A CDA official said it is simply not practicable to ask private schools to purchase lands and construct school buildings away from the residential sectors, because most of these schools would not be able to do so.

A recent survey conducted by CDA identified some 800 residential units being used for commercial purposes in violation of rules, including 255 schools, 27 government offices, 207 private firms, 18 embassies, four restaurants and 87 guesthouses.

The residents of various residential sectors have already raised their concern over the presence of offices of local and international agencies in their areas. They said it is necessary to shift these offices to other places keeping in view the occurrence of terrorist attacks in the capital city.

The draft proposals in the revised master plan of Zone IV are yet to be approved by the prime minister.

According to the data provided to this scribe, the land acquisition was started in 1962 but CDA could not acquire the whole area because the Lahore High Court had given a verdict that CDA could not regulate the private owners.

Member Planning CDA Syed Tanvir Bukhari in his recent chat with this scribe showed confidence that the revised master plan of Zone IV would greatly help resolve various problems. “The proposals have been prepared after a thorough review of the ongoing problems and future needs due to increasing population, and we hope that after its final approval by the prime minister, effective measures will be taken to implement them at the earliest,” he said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=211187