Vacating a stay on the construction of Lahore Ring Road's Southern Loop-III, which had been issued on property developer Bahria Town's plea, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has given the Punjab government permission to begin construction on the project.

The stay was issued in January 2016 after Bahria Town petitioned the courts since the said road was to pass through an under-construction housing scheme owned by the property developer.

Punjab government's counsel stated that Bahria Town had illegally begun construction without getting the scheme and maps approved by the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

Bahria Town's request to adjourn the hearing until its counsel recovers from his ailment was rejected by the court. Meanwhile, assistant advocate general Punjab and commissioner Lahore informed the court that construction on the project will be completed by December now that the stay had been vacated.

Responding to the decision, Bahria Town counsel Azhar Siddiq stated that the ruling was given without hearing the arguments of both parties and that his client would challenge the decision in Supreme Court.

Seventy-one houses and three constructed and four under-construction plazas reportedly fall in the path of the Ring Road's Southern Loop.

The government, under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, had announced that it would acquire some 656 kanals of agriculture land for the project, but the housing society purchased the same land despite knowing about its proposed acquisition, an official had earlier informed Dawn.