ISLAMABAD: As expected, newly-appointed Chief Commissioner Mohammad Ali Randhawa has also been given the additional charge of Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman.

According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division on Sunday, Chief Commissioner Randhawa would also head the CDA. Earlier, on Friday, after becoming the chief commissioner, he made his presence felt when he held a meeting with CDA board members.

An officer of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) in BS-20, Mr Randhawa replaced retired Capt Anwarul Haq as the chief commissioner and CDA chairman.

The new chief will be facing several challenges and would have to give special attention to ensure completion of ongoing projects.

Chief Commissioner Randhawa to look after civic body as well

These projects include expansion and overhauling work of Islamabad Expressway from PWD to G.T. Road, 10th Avenue project, Park Road expansion project and Blue Area Parking Plaza. The original completion time/deadline, mentioned in PC-Is, have already been missed. With extended deadlines, work on these projects is progressing at a snail’s pace.

Similarly, the issue of stalled sectors is also something which requires the new CDA chief’s attention.

According to the civic body officials, Mr Randhawa needs to focus on stalled sectors as well as those where development work is moving at a slow pace.

They said at present work was underway in five sectors, including I-12, I-15, E-12, C-14 and C-15. However, officials said except for I-15, work in all other sectors has been slow.

In addition to these sectors, there are several other sectors where the CDA has not started development work. These are D-13, E-13, F-13, C-13 and C-16 which have been facing the issue of landowners.

Above all, CDA officials said the new chairman will have to play his role to resolve water issue in Islamabad. They said every summer, the capital faced water scarcity as the population was constantly growing, but no new source of water had been explored in the last over two decades.

In the past, several projects, including Ghazi Barotha project which was conceived back in 2008 to bring 200 million gallons per day to Rawalpindi and Islamabad, had been planned but no headway was made on them. Similarly, on several occasions, the CDA announced that it would start construction of small dams, but nothing materialised.

Tenure of outgoing chairman

Retired Capt Anwarul Haq served in the CDA for just eight months and during his stay, he not only focused on the ongoing projects, but also launched a cycling track project and took steps to digitise land record and set up a nursing college.

During his tenure, the CDA had also made amendments to its bylaws, increasing floor area ratio and providing other relaxations to investors to get good results in the upcoming auctions of commercial plots.

He also got completed a portion of Iran Avenue from D-12 to E-11, which was opened to traffic last week while he had also started a drive to remove paper mulberry trees from F-9 Park.

CDA sources said when Mr Haq took over, the civic body had around Rs7 billion in its kitty and now, it has around Rs18 billion.

A number of inquiries against alleged land frauds worth billion of rupees had also been launched during his tenure.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2024