KOHAT: Land prices in areas along the Rawalpindi Road and University Road on outskirts of the city have been rising steadily due to better facilities offered by the housing schemes and the congested ill-planned city occupied by thousands of aliens now.

The University Road is now a scene of dozens of private housing schemes and private buildings offering hostel facilities to the students.

The prices in the KDA town have increased significantly during the past 28 years, but sudden surge was witnessed after year 2000 and now one kanal plot, which was auctioned for Rs40,000 in 1990, fetched Rs4 million.

The cost of a constructed house has also increased from Rs3 million to between Rs25 million to Rs30 million in phase –I of KDA.

The property dealers expect Rs500,000 to Rs800,000 rise in the prices of plots because of the under-construction dual road from MP gate to Gulshanabad. The plots were changing hands daily which resulted in the rise of their prices on weekly basis.

Similarly, land prices on the Rawalpindi Road have surged to Rs4 million per kanal. People are selling their land, houses, gold and orchards in the city to buy a house in colonies in the clean, open and safe outskirts with wide planned roads and having water and sewer system.

The reason behind the surge in the land prices on Rawalpindi road is the presence of interchange from where the travellers could easily change routes on the Indus Highway to Karachi, Peshawar, Hangu and Rawalpindi. The area seeing fast development is at a drive of just 10 minutes from the city and the Kohat tunnel.

The city dwellers, meanwhile, have their own problems due to the heavy influx of IDPs and Afghan refugees who bring drug money from across the border and Fata and buy land at exorbitant prices.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2016