ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has finally started to move ahead with developing the prime housing project of the city – Park Enclave – as four construction firms have been pre-qualified to develop the infrastructure.Four firms – SKB Construction Limited, Maaksons, Maqbool Associates and Chaudhry Abdul Latif and Sons, have been pre-qualified on Monday to develop the scheme, termed as the ‘Jewel of Islamabad’ by the civic body.

“We are scheduled to issue tender documents from Tuesday and the four firms are expected to submit their bids within 10 days,” said CDA Member Estate Amer Ali.

Thirty-two firms had shown interest in developing the infrastructure at the housing scheme, the civic body will open the bids in the last week of Ramazan and the contract will be awarded to the lowest bidder.

“The plan is to give time to the contractor to plan during Eid days and start work soon after the order is issued by the CDA,” said an official of the planning wing.

The project was to completed by the end of 2013, but had been delayed

Work on Park Enclave was scheduled to be completed by December last year, but the project was delayed as development work could not be initiated due to various reasons.

Due to delay in initiating ground work, a number of allottees stopped paying installments for the plots.

The officials said the situation, however, had changed and work was progressing fast.

“We have already completed the boundary walls around the 1,600 kanal land, where Park Enclave is to be established. The infrastructure development includes construction of roads, bridges, laying water and sewerage lines etc.,” said the planning wing official.

Currently, CDA is using NHA’s 2011 schedule as a benchmark to determine the fair value of any infrastructure development contract. The official said the estimated cost of developing Park Enclave is around Rs1 billion.

“But there can be an escalation of 5-10 per cent as the benchmark is based on 2011,” the official added.

The officials expect development work to be completed in one year and the plots are likely to be handed over to the owners by the end of 2015.

There are around 700 large residential units and 40 commercial plots in Park Enclave, and the CDA is expected to earn a total of around Rs4 billion from the project.

While all seems to be going in the right direction for CDA, the civic body is yet to resolve the lingering issues of Kuri Model Village, as the locals affected and dislocated by development of Park Enclave are to be settled in the said village.

An official of the estate wing told Dawn that a PC-1, related to purchase of around 3,600 kanals in Kuri and Rehara village, has been finalised.

“We are working on it and the development of Kuri Model Village will start soon,” CDA spokesman Asim Khichi added.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2014