RAWALPINDI: A month after declaring that the Odeon Cinema will be preserved as a century-old landmark of the garrison city, the authorities had second thoughts and have decided to build a ‘mega mall’ at the site instead.

It is said the Lansdowne Trust, which owns the property, changed its mind when the trustees and other stakeholders met on Wednesday.

In the meeting, chaired by Station Commander Brig Syed Hassan Raza and attended by the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) Executive Officer Dr Saima Shah, the trustees, including Raja Shahid Zafar, Fasihuddin, Malik Munir and Nadeem Malik, said building a mega mall will help generate more revenue for the RCB.

It will house a hotel, shopping centre, cinema, Cantonment Library and the RCB offices.

A senior RCB officer told Dawn that the RCB had presented the plan of mega mall in 2012. “But the Trust raised the question that the land was leased by the British colonial authorities for the use of educational and recreational activities and constructing a shopping mall at the site would change that purpose,” he said.

Consequently, the plan to convert the cinema house into a “modern cinema” was dropped and the incumbent authorities decided to hire the services of consultant to suggest ways to remove the bottlenecks for the construction of shopping mall.

The 2012 RCB plan, made by the then cantonment executive officer, Rana Manzoor Ahmed Khan, called for raising a mega mall on 100 kanals of land, having a hotel, shopping mall, corporate offices, recreation areas like cineplex, health clubs, indoor games, swimming pools and residential apartments.

At present the land site is occupied by the Odeon Cinema, Shah Baloot Park, Cantonment Library and Rawalpindi Cantonment Board Offices. All the property belongs to the Lansdowne Trust which was established on December 5, 1891 by two Sikh brothers, Sardar Kirpal Singh Rai Bahadur and Sardar Sujan Singh Rai Bahadur.

The Trust was established in the name of Lord Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, Marquees of Lansdowne, who was viceroy and governor general of India from 1884 to 1894, with the aim to construct and manage a cinema, library and park to provide educational and recreational facilities to the residents of Rawalpindi Cantonment.

Raja Shahid Zafar, a former minister of state for industries and production in Benazir Bhutto’s first cabinet, is a member of the Trust.

He told Dawn that “the Trust members discussed two options - one to preserve the old structure and second to pull it down and construct a mega mall in its place. All members agreed to go for the second option as it will generate more money.”

“Since there is no money available with Trust and RCB, it will call EOI (expression of interest) from consultants and the selected firm would prepare a fresh feasibility report to convert the old plan into new requirements.”

According to him, the mega mall would be constructed on build-operate-transfer basis.

“The Trust has asked the RCB to put out an advertisement in this regard in the newspapers,” he said.

Before the Trust meeting, the RCB had met and approved reducing the fine for illegally constructed building in the cantonment areas, RCB spokesman Qaisar Mehmood told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2017