RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) plans to construct 10 parking plazas and a 25-storey tower in the city on private-public partnership basis.

A senior official of RDA told Dawn that the RDA had selected Raja Bazaar, Liaquat Road and Rehmanabad for constructing the plazas while the rest would be finalised selected in a week or two.

However, the land for the parking plaza in Raja Bazaar is a disputed as it belongs to Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC), the official said, adding that the RDA will have to get permission of the civic body or purchase the land from it.

He said the RDA chairman, Arif Abbasi, had formed a five-member committee comprising RDA directors engineering, architecture, finance, state land and metropolitan and traffic engineering.

The plazas aim to solve parking issue of the city for the next 20 years, the authority’s chief says

The committee has been given a task to identify suitable places for seven other parking plazas.

The official said that the committee would also enter into negotiations with the RMC for the land for Raja Bazaar parking plaza.

He said the RDA also planned to construct a 25-storey Tower on Murree Road adjacent to Rawalpindi Municipal Library and Historical Liaquat Bagh. The total area of the proposed tower is 13 kanal.

First two floors will have offices of RDA and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

The rest of the floors will be rented out to multinational companies, which would generate handsome revenue for the RDA, the official said.

When contacted, RDA Chairman Arif Abbasi confirmed that he had formed a five-member committee to find suitable places for the parking plazas and make terms of reference for the investors of the two projects.

“The private-public partnership will save the Punjab government from bearing the cost of the projects. RDA will not get any money from the provincial government for the two projects,” he said.

After selecting the sites for the parking plazas, he said, the private firms would be invited to construct the projects on build, operate and transfer basis.

“The structure will be owned by the government and the investor will get back its money with some profit from the entry fee collected from the users of parking plazas within three to five years,” he said.

He said that many investors had contacted the PTI government for the private-public partnership and they were ready to invest in upcoming projects.

He said the construction of 10 parking plazas would end the parking issue in next 20 years.

Earlier, there was a ban on construction of multi-storey buildings in and around the Benazir Bhutto Airport. But after shifting of the airport to new place, the ban may be of no use,” he said.

He said the present building of the RDA would be razed and the offices would be shifted to the vacant building of RMC on Liaquat Road.

On the other hand, the RMC has made objections over the RDA to construct Parking plaza on RMC former offices land on City-Saddar Road.

A senior official of RMC said the last PML-N government in Punjab had initiated the plans to construct parking plaza after razing old offices of RMC on City-Saddar Road and construction of RDA plaza.

He said that parking plaza on City Saddar Road would be constructed by RMC not RDA. He said that the land belonged to RMC and the RDA had nothing to do with the land. He said that the RDA would be asked not to cross its limits.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2018