ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) seems gaining the investors’ confidence as more than 460 forms for the 200 plots in Park Enclave were sold on the first day of the relaunch of the housing project on Monday.

Despite high rates of Rs10,000 each, the civic agency expects that around 5,000 forms would be sold in the coming weeks which will fetch an additional Rs500 million for the CDA as a non-refundable amount.

“There is no land dispute attached with Park Enclave now and the CDA has complete possession of the land. The development work is at a full swing,” said CDA spokesman Asim Khichi.

The high subscription of forms is in a sharp contrast to the original launch of Park Enclave in 2011 when only 400 forms were sold out of the 700 plots offered for sale.

The CDA has fixed the rates of one kanal plot at Rs17.5 million and two kanal plots at Rs35 million each to be paid in installments.

Investors’ confidence seems restored as 460 forms sold out for 200 plots on first day

“To benefit the buyers directly and discourage any investor in the residential scheme, the CDA has decided not to auction the plots. The allotment will be made through balloting,” Mr Khichi added.

The Park Enclave was launched in 2011 and scheduled to be completed by December 2013, but the project got delayed mainly due to mismanagement in the CDA.

Due to the failure of the CDA to finalise the compensation amount to the local people for their built-up property, the latter did not allow the civic body to start the infrastructure development work at the site. In reaction to the delays in the launch of the development work, those who had purchased plots stopped paying their installments, which resulted in further cash crunch for the CDA.

“Now the matter is in control as the subject was approached step by step. On the other hand, compensations have been paid to the owners of the land. A strict policy had to be adopted against those miscreants who were creating troubles for the CDA and not letting the start of the work,” member estate Amer Ahmed Ali said.

After paying compensation for the built-up properties to the local residents last week, the possession of land is being handed over to the CDA. To ensure that the matter worked smoothly, the cheques were handed to the land owners through the area MNA, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

The infrastructure development of 1,600 kanal Park Enclave is scheduled to be completed in a year.

“This is not a difficult task,” said Chaudhry Amir Latif, the contractor of the Park Enclave project. “Because there is no outside disturbance here like the one for the metro bus project and now there is also no local resistance as the land has been cleared,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2014