RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority’s (RDA) town planning wing has failed to implement the garrison city’s master plan for six years, causing housing schemes and encroachments to mushroom.

Established to monitor and regulate town planning, the authority failed to set up a government housing scheme or improve roads and streets, parks, green belts and commercial and residential areas.

A senior official from the RDA told Dawn that road engineering was the responsibility of the town planning wing, but its officials were preoccupied with issuing no objection certificates (NOC) to private housing socities.

He said the master plan of the city had not been implemented, and the boundaries of rural and urban areas had not been defined. The official said the mushrooming of housing societies and encroachments were the result of a lack of planning.

Authority’s oversight led to mushroom growth of housing schemes, encroachments

He said according to the master plan, the city’s industrial, residential and commercial zones are separate, but this was not implemented by the RDA. He said the ring road project, which is also part of the master plan, has not begun despite the passage of six years.

The official said road engineering was the main component of the town planning department’s duties, but the department had also failed to reduce the burden of traffic on main roads like Murree Road, Airport Road, Peshawar Road and inner town roads.

He said that in 2007, former RDA director general Makeen Shahbaz had planned to improve road traffic in Raja Bazaar, but this plan was still in the files, as was the plan to make Murree Road signal-free.

PTI MPA Arif Abbasi told Dawn the RDA was becoming a tool for PML-N local leaders to develop housing societies, and also said the town planning department had failed to implement the city’s master plan.

He said the matter was taken up in the provincial assembly, but the government did not respond. Mr Abbasi said civic bodies were being run to facilitate traders, who had been given a free hand to encroach on the city’s roads and turn residential areas into commercial areas.

He said Satellite Town and Khayaban-i-Sir Syed were developed areas that had turned into commercial hubs, where private clinics, schools and beauty salons had been opened without approval and to which the RDA was not paying attention.

Commissioner Azmat Mehmood, who is also the RDA director general, was not available for comments despite repeated attempts.

Former Rawalpindi district nazim Raja Tariq Kayani told Dawn the RDA lost its importance due to the negligence of officials who were only interested in drawing their salaries.

“It’s duties are special planning, urban control, right of way, how to expand the city, regulation of building plans and traffic engineering but unfortunately the civic body has been doing nothing for the last six years,” he said.

He said with the district coordination officer as RDA chairman and the commissioner as director general, political interference in the authority has destroyed the CDA.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2016