ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Sunday announced that it would soon commence development of 1-15 and had invited pre-qualification of contractors.

The sector, launched in 2005, is mainly designed for the middle and lower middle class, but its development work could not be started largely due to the civic agency’s negligence.

Around 10,289 people, allotted plots in this sector, have been pressuring the civic agency to initiate development of the sector. The sector was inaugurated by then prime minister Shaukat Aziz in July 2006. Plots of five and seven marlas are to be carved out in the entire sector.

Civic body seeks pre-qualification of contractors

According to the initial plan, the civic agency was to develop 5,600 plots and construct 8,000 flats. However, later the plan for construction of flats was dropped and it was decided that all those who had paid money for flats would also be given plots with some adjustment of the amount.

In a statement on Sunday, the CDA once again announced that it was going to develop the sector.

“The CDA has finally paved the way for starting work in Sector I-15. Pre-qualification of contractors for the infrastructure development of the sector has been invited,” said the statement.

It said that the I-series sectors were basically designed to provide low-income housing, but these remained stalled for years. In February 2000, it was decided to develop I-15 to overcome the shortage of housing units in the capital.

The statement said the sector was launched to accommodate the low-income citizens. However, despite allotment of plots no step regarding its development was taken since 2005.

It said the incumbent CDA management, in line with its policy, was starting development work in the sectors, which were previously victims of stalemate.

Sector I-15 has 10,289 plots and the civic agency has taken possession of its entire land. The authority has redesigned the plan and structural designs of the entire sector for various categories of plots.

“In order to resolve the project issues, the CDA requested the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency for Environmental Approval and invited all the stakeholders to weigh in with the environmental concerns mentioned in an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report,” it said.

The statement said that public hearing of interested and affected people was held on Aug 19, 2019, and it was hoped that Pak-EPA would issue the NOC in this regard shortly.

It said that the present management prioritised starting infrastructure development of the stalled sectors. As such, the CDA-DWP approved the PC-I amounting to Rs5.65 billion for infrastructure development of I-15.

“Pre-qualification of contractors for infrastructure development in Sector I-15 has been invited through the press and after completing the codal formalities and fulfillment of necessary procedures, work would be started shortly,” the statement said.

Earlier, CDA had allocated Rs1 billion for development of this sector during fiscal year 2018-19, but the amount remained unspent.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2019