CDA focuses on commercial activity in industrial area

[Salman]

CDA focuses on commercial activity in industrial area


ISLAMABAD: City managers plan to achieve in the industrial area what they could not in the residential areas of Islamabad – stop owners from using land for commercial purposes.

Spokesman for the Capital Development Authority Asim Khichi told Dawn that the CDA was planning action against what he called “the non-conforming use” of land by those it allotted the land.

“Various strategies are being adopted to minimise resistance by the nonconformists,” he said, referring obliquely to the resistance that had made the CDA abandon its campaigns against commercial activities in residential buildings in the past.

That was why the CDA is targeting restaurants in its new campaign against the nonconformists in the industrial area, according to him.

An official of the enforcement department of the CDA admitted that industrial plots were being converted into businesses of other kinds and that the trend was spreading to other sectors too, like education.

But the official held his counterparts in the Building Control Section (BCS) and the Estate Department equally responsible for waking up late to the use of CDA land for purposes other than it was allotted for.

Strong lobbies are active to resist any operation against the commercial activities at the industrial plots.

Unlike the highly visible commercial activity in residential areas, the same on industrial plots involved technicalities of which most of the BCS officials seem to be ignorant.

Owners of industrial plots have formal permission from the CDA to have commercial units on their premises, like a canteen for their workers, a showroom and a sale point for their products, storage area and an office block, according to a BCS official.

“That is why most of the cases filed by our inspectors with the Deputy Commissioner CDA yield no result,” the official said. If they could establish improper use of land, the law allows the cancellation of the plot.

A large number of owners of industrial plots misuse the permission by converting up to half of their plot area to run a call centre, restaurant or other commercial activity – even marriage halls, according to the official.