Islamabad: Housing shortage in Capital: CDA sitting on revised draft of master plan

[Naveed Yaseen]

Housing shortage in Capital may worsen : CDA sitting on revised draft of master plan

* Private firm submitted draft to Planning Wing a year ago
* Recommends creation of new residential sectors

By Fazal Sher

ISLAMABAD: The failure of the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) Planning Wing to revise Islamabad’s master plan may aggravate shortage of housing units in the city.

Almost a year ago, Mott McDonald Pakistan (MMP), a private firm, had submitted a draft of the revised master plan to the wing with a suggestion of creating new residential sectors to meet housing shortage. However, the draft has been awaiting approval since.

According to the MMP, the number of the residential sectors should be increased from 56 to 68 and that of the series of sectors from 16 to 18 by extending the city’s limits to the areas along motorway.

This, it says, will ensure creation of thousands of additional houses and thus, easing housing shortage.

The city currently has around 85,000 houses and is short of over 50,000 such units.

A CDA official, who wanted not to be named, told Daily Times on Monday that delay in the plan’s approval and execution could worsen the housing shortage in the city.

According to him, master plans of the modern cities are revised every 25 years but Islamabad has been awaiting full-fledged revision of its original master plan since the city was declared the federal capital in 1960s.

The official said according to the original master plan, Islamabad was divided into four parts–Rawalpindi (259 square kilometres), Islamabad proper, inclusive of institutional and industrial areas (220.15 square kilometres), Islamabad park (220.15 square kilometres), and Islamabad rural areas (466.20 square kilometres).

He said the master plan was partially reviewed in mid-1980s.

According to him, during the exercise, the CDA made two changes to the master plan – creation of model towns in rural areas around the city and the redesigning of the business and commercial district, Blue Area.

Accordingly, eight model villages cropped up in Rawal Town, Humak, Chak Shehzad, Margalla Town, Tarlai Kalan, Alipur Farash, Kuri and Nurpur Shahan.

The official said Blue Area’s original design in the master plan had envisaged high-rise buildings on both sides of Jinnah Avenue. However, he said, the revised plan allowed only six-storyed buildings on Jinnah Avenue’s southern side and those with 15 to 19 storeys on its northern side.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg11_2