LAHORE: The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has handed over the possession of its 122 kanal land which once housed the Kot Lakhpat fruit and vegetable market to the Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department (SH&MED) for construction of a 100-bed hospital.

The authority did this after it sold the land, situated at prime location of Ferozepur Road near Arfa Karim Technology Park, to the department for over Rs2 billion, Dawn has learnt.

After the 2011 shifting the business to the newly-established fruit and vegetable market in Kaacha village near Hadiara drain on Ferozepur Road, various organisations representing public and private sector showed interest in procuring this precious chunk of land, but the LDA didn’t sold it to anyone.

However, it found a proposal of the specialised healthcare department to buy the land ‘reasonable.’ According to LDA, its governing body in its meeting held in August this year finally accorded an approval to transfer physical possession to the department, subject to depositing of Rs2.033bn with authority’s bank account before Feb 1, 2022.

Land once housed Kot Lakhpat fruit shops where clashes erupted between traders, town staff in 2011

Accordingly, the department, through its planning officer, submitted in writing pledging that the cost of land would be deposited with the LDA accounts soon after receiving funds from the Punjab government.

“Since issuance of allotment is mandatory before the physical possession, the case was submitted to the LDA DG for issuance of the allotment letter to the department subject to confirmation/ratification by the LDA governing body after depositing of Rs2.033bn, approval of building plan from the building control authority along with allied NOCs from the relevant departments and restriction of the use of land for the purpose of hospital alone and if there is any amendment required in the plan (use of land for other purposes), it should be done by the respective authority,” read minutes of a recent meeting of the LDA governing body.

The department was further asked to not sublet the land to others or sub-divide it without getting requisite NOCs. After fulfilling all conditions by the department, the LDA recently issued allotment letter and handed over physical possession of the land to the department.

“The authority confirms the allotment and delivery of physical possession of the land to the department, near Arfa Karim Technology Park,” reads the decision of the authority taken in the governing body meeting.

It merits mentioning that clashes had broken out in July 2011 between traders and officials of the then respective town municipal administration when a team along with the police launched a grand operation to get 122 kanal land (housing the Kot Lakhpat fruit and vegetable market) vacated in line with shifting the businesses to the newly-established market.

The TMA team and police had faced immense resistance from traders during the operation. The protesters had also thrashed some of the officials besides setting a TMA truck on fire and damaging another vehicle. They had also pelted the police and TMA officials with stones, leaving more than a dozen injured.

They had blocked Ferozepur Road by setting used tyres ablaze, throwing traffic out of gear for almost three hours besides chanting slogans against the town administration and demanding action against the officials involved in torturing the traders. They were of the view that before shifting the existing market, the government should have provided all necessary facilities at the new site. The police had also launched a baton charge to disperse the protesters, leaving some of them injured.

They arrested over 100 protesters besides registering cases against 500 or so on the complaint of the Gulberg TMO.

Since the protests by traders continued for a couple of months in 2011, they finally shifted to the new place and the LDA took possession of its land.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2021