KARACHI, April 8: The Balochistan government has decided to restore the prestigious Sangar housing project in Gwadar district by reversing its earlier decision of scrapping the project, it is reliably learnt here from well-placed sources.
The decision to scrap the project was taken by the government in November last by cancelling allotments of all the plots granted to public, defence and other federal agencies.
As many as 4,000 people, mostly local, were affected by the decision, which was criticised by the public as well as the business community. No reason was given in the official notification, dated Nov 19, issued by the provincial Local Government, which says: "The Government of Balochistan is pleased to cancel all the allotment of plots, including (those made to) defence and federal agencies with immediate effect."
The notification further states that the Gawadar district coordination officer and project director, Sangar Housing Scheme, shall again take possession of all such plots, by getting these vacated, in case physical possession of the plots was given to the allottees.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held in Quetta recently, which was presided over by Provincial Finance Minister Ahsan Shah. The meeting was attended by Gwadar Town Nazim Babu Ghulan, director-general, Balochistan Development Authority, Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri, Board of Revenue member Murjan Khan, Local Government secretary, DCO, Gwadar and Mr Faiz Khidwai of the Consultant Group.
The meeting, after considering legal aspects of the issue, recommended to the provincial chief minister to revise the earlier decision of cancellation and restored the project in the larger interest of the people as well as the investors. Talking to Dawn, Mr Khidwai termed it a wise decision and in the interests of people and business community.
He said the decision would help boost the investment climate, which was hit by the earlier decision of the government, adding that as a result of such negative decisions, the investment climate in Gwadar Port had been adversely affected.
Sangar housing project was developed at Koh-i-Batil to provide residential and commercial plots to the residents of Gwadar and Balochistan at reasonable prices, to enable them to share the anticipated economic growth of Gwadar. Initially, more than 3,500 individuals had bought plots in the project, but many of them had sold their plots.
Most of the plots have been sold at very high prices, i.e. Rs 3million for a 1,000sq-yard residential plot and Rs5 million for a 1,000sq-yard commercial plot. The stack-holders include private individuals, businessmen, investors, government official, armed forces personnel and politicians.
