Islamabad: CDA chief calls for brisk uplift work in Sector D-12

[Naveed Yaseen]

Mobarik A. Virk
Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi has called for brisk development work in Sector D-12 so that people who were allotted plots way back in 1988 could construct their houses at the earliest.

The CDA chairman took a round of the sector on Thursday to review the pace of development work.

Imtiaz Inayat Elahi said that it is the primary responsibility of the CDA to meet the growing residential requirements of citizens by taking steps to overcome shortage of housing units in the federal capital.

In a briefing to the CDA chairman, the project director said that snags and hurdles are still being encountered, which are causing a delay in development work in the sector. In this connection, he mentioned sudden halts in supply of construction material for the project when trucks, trailers and dumpers are prevented from entering the federal capital due to security reasons.

The project director informed the CDA chairman that some pockets of land are still under ‘adverse possession,’ something which has always been put forth as the main reason behind delay in completion of work on the project in the past.

Squatting on the acquired land or refusing to hand over possession of land even after all procedures for land acquisition have been completed badly affected the CDA’s efforts to open and develop more residential sectors in the federal capital.

This was one of the main reasons that in 1990, the CDA introduced the Islamabad Zoning Regulations, under which, it decided to let the private sector join in development of the federal capital by throwing Zone-II and Zone-V for them. This problem has been bleeding the CDA in not only Sector D-12 for the last 21 years. However CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi sounded quite determined when he issued orders to the member estate to resolve the issue of ‘adverse possession’ at the earliest besides telling other concerned departments and contractors associated with the development of the sector to expedite the pace of work and complete the project in the shortest possible time.

He also directed the CDA Environment Wing to start landscaping and development of parks and grounds at the designated sites in the sector as well as to initiate plantation campaign along major roads in the sector. He also passed orders to engage the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) in the construction of the grid station at the site already specified for the purpose within one week.

The CDA chairman expressed confidence that the pace of development work in Sector D-12 would improve and hurdles in its way would be removed soon, but unlike his predecessors, he did not set any deadline for completion of development work in the sector.

During his tenure as CDA chairman, Tariq Mahmood Khan had admitted that people who were allotted residential plots in the sector in 1988 should have got physical possession of their land before June 30, 2009. His predecessor, Kamran Lashari, expressed similar desires more than once during his extended tenure as CDA chairman, but failed to deliver.

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