Islamabad: CDA to auction 5 commercial plots to pre-qualified bidders

[Naveed Yaseen]

Mobarik A. Virk

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is planning to dispose of five plots of high commercial value through an open auction as and when it will take place.

All plots are at prime commercial locations, most attractive to parties interested in big time investments. But, keeping in view the prevailing slump in the property market, the timings for offering these plots for auction appears somewhat irksome.

These plots would be auctioned by the CDA but the auction would be restricted and there would be a pre-qualification procedure adopted by the civic body to select the potential bidders who would be permitted to participate in that auction. However this would certainly leave a lot of space for underhand dealing in the whole process.

CDA spokesman Director General Syed Mustafain Kazmi, when contacted by the ‘The News,’ said that apparently the process has left a lot of space for ‘underhand dealing’ and emergence of ‘cartel(s)’ during the bidding. “I concede that your apprehensions are correct,” he said, adding “we have taken very strict measures so as the CDA should not suffer any financial loss in the auction of these plots. We received the shocks recently following the recent open auction of commercial plots as many of the successful bidders decided to back out of their bids leaving the security deposit that they had made with the CDA to be confiscated.”

“I think it was easy for them to give up Rs2 million that they had deposited. But for this forthcoming auction for pre-qualified bidders, we have set the security deposit as Rs20 million. This would be the sort of money that nobody would like to abandon,” he said.

The CDA has kept the process ‘transparent’ as there appears nothing unusual with the advertisements appearing in almost all leading national newspapers of the country and a newspaper being published from Dubai. The only catch is that there is an innocent clause of ‘pre-qualification’ to be eligible to take part in the forthcoming auction.

The plots to be auctioned to only ‘pre-qualified’ individuals, groups or companies include 11,750 square yard plot of former ‘Margalla Tower’ that collapsed in the October 8, 2005 earthquake. The other is located at the expensive commercial area of Jinnah Super Market where the CDA has decided to vacate the vast building accommodating its Directorate of Health Services and put this building spread over a plot measuring 3,777.77 square yards up for auction. Yet another plot, measuring 2,394 square yards, also at Jinnah Super Market (Markaz F-7), would be the prime attraction for the select group of bidders. The other two plots included in this special auction include a 4,608 square yards plot in Blue Area (G-7/F-7) and 2,500 square yards plot in Sector G-6.

CDA Member FA Saeedur Rehman, when contacted by ‘The News’, said that this would not be for the first time that plots are being auctioned to pre-qualified bidders. “We have the examples of the plot for Centaurus Hotel or the one for Grand Hyat or the Regency which were auctioned to the pre-qualified bidders. So, if bidders for these five plots are being pre-qualified to take part in the auction it is nothing unusual,” he said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=196030