ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has expedited work on the construction of a new road to merge Diplomatic Enclave with its extended area to ensure better security arrangements.

The CDA launched the project a couple of months ago and has recently expedited the pace of work on it.

Officials of the engineering department said the construction of the 3.25km road will be completed in about two months.

An officer said there were around 70 houses on the alignment of the road being constructed on the CDA’s acquired land in Malpur. Out of them, 43 houses have been demolished and the remaining served with notices.

“The road starts off at Murree Road and it is an ‘L’ shape road. From the starting point till 1.5 km, it is a straight road and there is only one house on its alignment which will be removed soon,” the officer said.

He said in the remaining portion of the road, there were 22 houses, which had been served with notices and the same will be removed soon.

The officer said work was going on in full swing and in some portion sub-base had also been laid. “Though as per the PC-I, the completion time of the the project is six months, we are optimistic the the road will be ready in next two months well before the stipulated time,” he said.

The road once constructed will be used as an alternative to Third Avenue which passes through the old Diplomatic Enclave and its extended area.

In the extended area, there is the embassy of a friendly country, which had some reservation about security arrangements as Third Avenue was also being used by motorists moving towards Bari Imam and Quaid-i-Azam University area.

To this, the government last year directed the CDA to construct a new road in the rear side of the embassy in place of Third Avenue.

CDA officials said when work on the new road would be completed, only restricted traffic will be allowed on Third Avenue while the new road will be a thoroughfare.

It is relevant to mentioned that until 2016 around 33 embassies were operating in residential areas in violation of CDA bylaws even they possessed plots within the Diplomatic Enclave.

Out of them, 20 had their plots inside the enclave. Backed by a court directive, the CDA in 2016 swung into action and directed the embassies to discontinue operating in residential areas.

Following this, a number of embassies were shifted inside the enclave, however some were still operating in residential areas or outside the Diplomatic Enclave.

The CDA officials said after construction of the new road, the division between the old enclave and the extended area would end and more embassies/missions could be accommodated in the extended area.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2023