ISLAMABAD: City managers on Tuesday decided to approach the Planning Commission to look into terms of references (ToRs) for hiring a consultant for revision of the master plan of Islamabad, as under the “harsh” clauses in the existing ToRs, all firms that have submitted bids will stand disqualified.

A meeting of the CDA board chaired by Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed besides other agenda items held a detailed discussion on the consortium of four consulting firms of 11 companies, which have submitted their bids for revision of the master plan.

The board was told that a technical committee had recommended disqualification of all four consortiums as they did not have the required experience in the light of ToRs finalised by a federal commission and vetted by the Planning Commission.

Under one of the clauses, a firm having experience of preparing/revising master plans of five major cities of the world in last 10 years should be given preference.

The board members said due to this clause, all four consortiums were ineligible to be awarded contract for revision of the master plan of the capital, which is already facing an inordinate delay.

Sources said this clause was an impediment to picking up a consulting firm as world’s renowned firms did not show an interest in revision of Islamabad’s master plan while the available firms do not have the required experience.

Under current terms of reference, all firms that have submitted bids will stand disqualified, says official

“Islamabad is a capital city, we don’t want to award contract to a firm which has absolutely no experience of master planning. But we believe there should be some relaxation in requirement of experience,” said an officer of the CDA.

“Today, the CDA board neither rejected nor accepted bids of consortiums of four firms. Rather, we decided to take up the issue with the Planning Commission,” said a board member.

He said the board decided that the issue would be referred back to the Planning Commission to look into it, adding a meeting had already been arranged for Wednesday (today) by the Planning Commission to deliberate the issue.

Islamabad’s master plan was prepared in 1960 by Greek firm, Doxiadis Associates, and was going to be revised for the first time.

The master plan was supposed to be revised after every 20 years. However, successive governments did not make proper revisions in it in accordance with the city’s emerging needs but kept focus on “selective changes”. So far, over 40 selective changes have been made by different governments without getting any input from professional consultancy firms.

The PTI government in December 2018 formed a commission to revise the master plan. The commission after preparing an interim report left the proper revision to a consultant firm, which is yet to be hired.

However, the interim report prepared by the commission, which was approved by federal cabinet, resolved issues of high-rise buildings and regularisation of buildings/houses in certain areas.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s house in Banigala was also regularised last year based on the bylaws/interim report finalised by the commission.

On the other hand, Islamabad, which has currently over 2.2 million population, is facing several challenges due to non-revision of the master plan.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021