RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) is seeking the assistance of the garrison city’s station commander to realise its years-old plan of repurposing prime land on The Mall for commercial use.

The land in question is the site currently occupied by the Odeon Cinema, a public park and a library, and the civic body wants to convert the recreational area into a commercial property.

A senior RCB officer told Dawn the civic body wanted to construct a multi-storey plaza on the site of the over century-old cinema, and expressions of interest have been sought from private investors for the construction of a commercial building on a built-and-operate basis.

The Odeon Cinema as well as the Cantonment Library and Park are the property of Lansdowne Trust, which is administered by the RCB. The trust was established in the name of Lord Henry Petty Fitzmaurice – the marquee of Lansdowne – who was viceroy and governor general of India between 1884 and 1894.

It was established in Dec 1891 by two Sikh brothers; Sardar Kirpal Singh Rai Bahadur and Sardar Sujan Singh Rai Bahadur, to construct a cinema, library and park in the cantonment areas in order to provide educational and recreational facilities to the residents of Rawalpindi Cantonment under the Raj.

The cinema was closed down in 2008 on the directives of then-station commander Brig Sajjad Azam. The RCB had earlier tried to push for repurposing during the tenure of former army chief retired Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani, but the attempt failed.

According to the RCB official, the last date for submitting the expressions of interest for the commercial plaza is Oct 6. But in order to repurpose the land, RCB has asked for help from the Rawalpindi station commander, who is also president of the cantonment board.

Once approval is granted, a request will be forwarded to the army chief for the award of a no-objection certificate. This is necessary because the land in question is surrounded by important military installations.

RCB is planning to take up its issues and new projects with Brig Tanveer Shahzad, the new Rawalpindi station commander. A meeting in this regard is expected to be held within a week or two.

The RCB official told Dawn the civic body had also prepared a presentation regarding the long-due Khanpur Dam Water Supply Project Phase III, which was stopped when funds were not released for the project by the federal government.

He said the project should be re-started in order to meet the requirements of the two cantonments, Rawalpindi and Chaklala, and explained that under the project, water will be supplied to civilian-populated areas of the cantonment via pipelines from the Khanpur Dam.

He said that the new head of the cantonment board would also be informed about the income and taxes generated in cantonment areas and the expenses of the civic body.

Brig Shahzad will also be briefed on the development of schools and health facilities in cantonment areas, and it is expected that the board will seek his help in securing funds from their parent department, the defence ministry.

When asked for comment, RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood said the board was working on different projects aimed at improving revenue generation.

He said the civic agency had sought expressions of interest from private investors in the Lansdowne trust case, adding that the RCB head will also be briefed in this regard.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2017