RAWALPINDI: The City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) on Friday decided to begin development work worth Rs1.8 billion in NA-52, as had been announced by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan last month.

Mr Khan announced the construction of a children’s hospital, a sports complex, a park and a graveyard that would cost Rs1.8 billion for the union councils falling within NA-52, which consists of Rehmatabad, Dhoke Chaudhrian, Dhoke Munshi, Chaklala and adjoining areas.

While the provincial government has not released funds for these projects, the district coordination officer (DCO), Talat Mehmood Gondal, met with CDGR officials on Friday to discuss how to implement the project.

A senior CDGR official told Dawn the interior minister announced that land near Dhoke Munchi would be used for the projects, and the CDGR meeting was held to get the land demarcated.

He said the land was in the possession of the Islamabad Capital Territory administration, and the Rawalpindi administration only recently acquired it. “The demarcation of the land will be the first step, after which the project concept papers will be prepared,” he said.

He said the meeting was informed that there were no funds for the project, and the concerned department was directed to make the PC-1 and send it to Lahore for final approval, so the finance department releases funding.

The official said the CDGR and other civic bodies were directed by the interior minister to speed up work, so the projects can be completed within a few months.

He said water supply lines in NA-52 would be laid down as per the directions, and that civic bodies had abandoned work in downtown areas to focus on these projects.

An official handout issued on the meeting stated that DCO Gondal directed the concerned officials to speed up development work in Potohar Town.

The DCO informed the meeting that a 100 bed children’s hospital, sports complex, park and graveyard would be constructed in Dhoke Munshi and Chaklala. He asked the officials to complete the initial work as soon as possible, so that the work could begin at the end of next month.

During the meeting, Mr Gondal expressed concerns about the increase in the cost of bricks and the use of substandard material to bake bricks in kilns. He directed the local administration to lower brick prices and ensure that people are buying good quality bricks.

He said a policy would be formed and the quality monitoring system would be improved so brick kilns could not fool people by giving them low quality bricks.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016