ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to prepare a fresh plan for its land alongside I.J. Principal Road to generate billions of rupees from land auctions. However, much of the land is still under the illegal occupation of land-grabbers, Dawn has learnt.

The CDA, which owns a long strip of commercial land alongside I.J. Principal Road from Faizabad, Peshawar Road, up to G.T. Road, has so far failed to properly utilise the land worth billions.

A large portion of this state land is currently under the illegal possessions of land-grabbers who, allegedly in connivance with corrupt elements of the enforcement directorate, have been using the land for commercial ventures such as bus terminals, car-wash stations and hotels.

New plan on the cards to auction off land along I.J. Principal Road

Sources said the chronic issue of encroachment caught the attention of incumbent CDA Chairman Ishrat Ali. Travelling on I.J. Principal Road, he became aware that the civic authority has an 11km-long and 300ft-wide right of way (ROW) along with a 150ft-wide strip of commercial land, but most of the area is under illegal occupation.

During a board meeting on Friday, sources said, the chairman directed Member Planning Ehsanul Haq to formulate plans for the multiple use of land along I.J. Principal Road, so that in the next phase, the civic agency could auction off commercial plots.

“Yes, the board decided for new planning parameters for our land along I.J. Principal Road,” said CDA spokesperson Malik Saleem. “The planning wing has started its homework and after that, our enforcement wing will start operations to remove encroachments. Then we will go for auctions.”

He added that being a civic agency, it is the CDA’s responsibility to dispose with plots for commercial activities through auctions.

Sharing the background of I.J. Principal Road, CDA officials toldDawnthat when the initial plans were formulated for Islamabad in the ‘60s, its twin city Rawalpindi was also considered. According to that master-plan, Rawalpindi was also to be developed and therefore, it was decided that a main road would be set up between the I sector in Islamabad and the J sector in Rawalpindi. However, the latter did not subsequently adopt the said master-plan and the J sector was not developed. Nonetheless, the road that had been constructed was named I.J. Principal Road.

CDA officials said that on both sides of I.J. Principal Road, there is 600ft-wide ROW and in many pockets, the civic agency bought the land. Later, however, according to CDA’s 1992 regulations, the agency’s management said that since Rawalpindi did not adopt the joint master-plan, there was no need to acquire a ROW towards the Rawalpindi side.

However, CDA acquired a large chunk of land on the edges of the I series, such as sectors I-8, I-9, I-10, I-11, and I-12, etc; officials said that in many pockets, the civic agency acquired a 450ft-wide ROW. They added that the areas where the 450ft-wide ROW was acquired are badly encroached upon as the declared ROW is 300ft – in major pockets, the extra 150ft of land along I.J. Principal Road is under illegal occupation.

“This 150ft-wide strip of land along the ROW measuring over 800 kanals is worth over Rs30 billion,” said a CDA official who requested anonymity. He said that in the past, the CDA had auctioned around 20 plots in one 150ft-wide strip near Pindora Chungi and investors had enthusiastically participated in the bidding.

Sources added that the CDA land directorate should also be taken to task since because of the alleged involvement of officials of the land directorate, land-grabbers had encroached upon state land.

The sources explained that in some pockets, land has not been acquired by CDA so far, but even in those areas, commercial activities cannot take place without CDA’s permission. However, in violation of these rules, locals have been using the land as they wanted.

Like I.J. Principal Road, a major portion of the 3,550 kanals of land owned by CDA along the G.T. road has also been encroached upon but the CDA has not removed the encroachments. Here too, land-grabbers have set up hotels, petrol stations and so on. CDA officials have requested the chairman to look into this issue as well.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2018