RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has made a plan to establish a housing society on 5,500 kanals of land allocated for the sewerage treatment plant in Adiala village.

A senior official of RDA told Dawn that the provincial government directed the RDA to make plans to improve the revenue sources of the civic body so that it would not rely on the government to meet its expenses.

“The RDA made two plans to earn money, including establishment of a housing society at Adiala and a commercial plaza adjacent to RDA office on Murree Road near Liaquat Bagh.,”

The Punjab govt has asked the civic body to improve its revenue sources

He said that the plans had been discussed with former commissioner Azmat Mehmood who was promoted as Secretary Excise and Taxation last week.

Work on the plans continued with the land branch and metropolitan development and planning wing of the RDA.

He said that in more than 30 years after its establishment, RDA failed to develop a housing scheme and construct any commercial plaza on the vacant plots to improve its revenue sources.

“The RDA mainly relies on grants of Punjab government to launch development projects as well as meet the financial expenditure of its offices and establishment while development authorities in other parts of the province generated money,” he said.

For the housing scheme, he said, the RDA officials selected the vacant land which had been purchased by the Punjab government in 2006-07 for the establishment of a sewerage treatment plant under Rawalpindi Environment Improvement Project (REIP) of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The provincial government had spent Rs118 million on the purchase of the 5,500 kanals. The land was handed over to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

In 2010, Wasa constructed a boundary wall along the land to secure it from encroachment as the project of the sewerage treatment plant was shelved due to differences over Punjab government and ADB.

For the commercial plaza, the senior official said the RDA conducted a survey to find a suitable place and decided to construct it at a plot adjacent to RDA office and Rawalpindi Municipal Library.

He said that the plot was ideally located and would help the civic body improve its financial problems. He said that a permanent source of income was necessary for the civic body so that it would launch uplift projects without the help of provincial government.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2017