LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has started conducting audit of all its residential schemes in the provincial capital.

The audit has been started from the 25,600-kanal Johar Town, Dawn has learnt.

According to official sources, the LDA’s strategic policy unit (SPU) has been entrusted with the task to conduct audit of the schemes one by one.

“We have started audit in Johar Town first since it is the biggest developed residential scheme in the city,” LDA SPU’s urban expert Chaudhry Muhammad Akram told Dawn on Friday.

He said the audit would be in-depth and comprehensive. It includes checking of all residential, commercial and public utility plots, buildings, structures, access roads and open spaces.

The official said after the audit of Johar Town, they would start auditing other schemes, including Allama Iqbal Town, Sabzazar, Garden Town, Faisal Town, Shadman, Gulberg, Avenue-I, Muslim Town and Gujjarpura. He further said the core objective of the audit was to check things on ground and paper.

“After conducting audit of each scheme, a comprehensive report will be sent to LDA’s top authorities for improvements, if required,” he added.

Talking about other issues, Akram said reclassification of three important residential schemes had also been launched, starting from Faisal Town, Allama Iqbal and Garden Town. He said as per plan, classification of the aforementioned towns had earlier been approved by LDA’s top authorities. Under classification, surveys related to current status of commercial buildings/commercialisation, road width, growth had been conducted.

“Under reclassification process, we are now seeing areas where we can regularise, stop, reduce or enhance commercialisation,” he added.

The official claimed the ongoing exercises would help LDA streamline various issues related to residential projects, commercialisation, revenue etc. They would also help computerise the schemes’ record, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2016