RAWALPINDI: Work has started on converting the basement of the Raja Bazaar parking plaza into a shelter for the homeless in the garrison city.

The shelter will be made operational starting coming Monday.

Carpets were installed on Tuesday to accommodate 100 homeless people initially and motorcyclists have been asked not to park their two-wheelers in the basement. Motorcyclists had a hard time finding parking as they were being fined for parking their vehicles on the roads.

“Mattresses will be procured in a day or two and we have installed carpets worth Rs570,000 in the basement,” said Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Chairman Arif Abbasi.

He told Dawn that local philanthropists were helping in establishing the shelter and that the mattresses and carpets had come via donations.

Mr Abbasi said people will be registered in the shelter for three days at a time and provided food during that period.

They will not be asked to leave after three days and can stay if they do not have alternate arrangements, he said.

“However, we will move those who are ill to the hospital and addicts to rehabilitation centres,” he said.

Mr Abbasi added that the government wants inmates of the shelter to be treated as guests and that those who do not have jobs will be helped in getting one so they are able to provide shelter for themselves eventually.

“Federal Minister for Health Services Amir Mehmood Kiani is supervising the project and he will make arrangements with philanthropists for food, shelter and employment for the homeless,” he said.

He said the RDA was making alternate arrangements for parking on a vacant plot of the Rawalpindi Municipal Centre on City Saddar Road and that parking will be arranged in the main bazaars as well.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2018