ISLAMABAD, June 11: About 20,000 kanals of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), lying outside the municipal limits, have been illegally occupied, and if encroachments are not stopped, this figure can increase to 30,000.

This was said by Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat at the inauguration of the second phase of dualization of I.J. Principal Road on Wednesday. The second phase has been started at an estimated cost of Rs350 million.

The chief commissioner Islamabad, chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the inspector general Islamabad, additional inspector-general, additional deputy commissioner (general), CDA’s members administration, engineering, finance and planning and senior officials of the local administration were also present on the occasion.

The minister said he wanted to make Islamabad a model capital city by removing encroachments and face-lifting of different areas.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the inordinate delay in the completion of various mega-development projects of the CDA.

He asked the authority to reduce the completion time period of the second phase of the dualization by less than two years. He said the CDA had also failed to meet the targets given by him in the specified time period.

“Even after a lapse of eight months, the authority failed to meet the desired results,” he said.

Mr Hayat said the I.J. Principal Road fell on the boundary of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, therefore people from both cities would benefit from the project.

He asked the CDA chairman to apprise him about the pace of construction of I.J. Principal Road and other mega-projects on monthly basis so that he could play his role to remove bottlenecks in the way to development.

In this connection citizens should also fulfil their responsibility and cooperate with the CDA in the uplift projects, he added.

In his welcome speech, the CDA chairman, Chaudhry Abdul Rauf, said the authority would not compromise on the quality of work in the dualization of the road. He said the project would be completed by April 30, 2005.

The CDA’s member engineering, Brig Ghulam Akbar Bukhari, gave brief details about the project saying that the 10.2km long road from Faizabad to Peshawar Road (N-5) would be dualized within two years.

In the first phase, he said a sum of Rs118 million had been spent and Rs350 million would be utilized in the second one.

He said a railway underpass and two bridges would also be constructed in the project. He said Pakistan Railways had been provided Rs112 million for the construction of the underpass.

The official said the CDA was negotiating with the Survey of Pakistan, Ojri Camp, Wapda and residents of Dhoke Najju and F- Block Satellite Town for removal of their structures falling in the 300-feet broad alignment of the road.

Some residents of the area, whose houses had been demolished by the CDA for widening of the road, demanded of the interior minister to provide them alternative land for shelter.

The minister assured the union Nazim of the area Chaudhry Babar and the affected people that alternative land would be provided to those who had lost their houses.

A REPORTER ADDS: The affected people of I.J. Principal Road staged a protest on Wednesday.