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| September 26, 2005 | Monday | Sha'aban 21, 1426 |
Rs108m fine may be imposed on Sindh House
ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is likely to impose a Rs108 million fine on Sindh House management on account of different violations of its laws, a source in the authority told Dawn on Sunday. The source said the management of Sindh House had submitted to the authority the site plans of the building, according to which fine would be assessed.
The CDA has already declared the construction of Sindh House “unauthorized” as it was constructed without the authority’s approval.
Two types of fine would be imposed on the Sindh House management: annual ground rent (AGR) and extension charges (EC).
The current rate of AGR being charged by the CDA is stated to be Rs10 per sq yard, and EC is charged at the rate of Rs50 per sq yard.
The source said the total area of Sindh House was 121,000 sq yards, thus, one year AGR would be Rs1.21 million. Similarly, 30 years AGR would be to the tune of Rs36.3 million.
The source said the management of Sindh House had not paid extension charges since 1995 and now it had to pay 11-year extension charges which would be Rs71.5 million.
“Therefore the management of the Sindh House would pay a total of Rs108 million as annual ground rent and extension charges,” the source said.
The source said the Sindh House management was quite upset as the CDA’s building control section and anti-encroachment directorate had suspended the extension work on their premises on September 14 and deployed its guards to keep a regular check there.
When contacted, an official of the Sindh House said Sindh authorities were not aware that CDA’s permission was required for construction of government buildings in Islamabad.
“There are number of federal government buildings in Karachi which were constructed without approval of Sindh government or Karachi Development Authority,” the official said.
“We were not expecting such a harsh treatment from the CDA, but anyhow, the issue has been settled,” the official added.
Twenty five acres were allotted for Sindh House construction in 1973 and the site plan of the building was submitted to the CDA for approval the same year.
However, the authority had raised some objections and directed the Sindh authorities to rectify the site plan.
The source said instead of rectifying the plan, Sindh authorities started construction of the building in 1974 without getting approval of the CDA.
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