ISLAMABAD: After missing two deadlines, the under-construction parking plaza in Blue Area is still incomplete and at least two more months will require for its completion provided work continues at full pace.

Currently, concrete work on the last floor is in progress and after finishing it, the project’s gray structure will be completed.

The Rs1.3 billion project was started in March 2022 and it was supposed to be completed in March 2023, but subsequently its deadline was extended to September 30, which also lapsed without much progress. Then, the deadline was extended to June this year.

CDA officials said that the contractor had been directed to complete the project by September 15; however, insiders say apparently two more months were required to complete the project as after the gray structure, finishing work would also require time.

Launched in March 2022, project was supposed to be ready in a year and has missed two deadlines

An official said that on the ground floor, there are around 20 shops, which are being resized to get good bids in auctions.

“We are making all out efforts to get this project completed by September 15 which is our new deadline,” said a senior officer of CDA, adding that over 90pc gray structure work had already been completed. It is relevant to note here the plaza is one of the six parking lots, planned by the CDA some years ago. However, the construction of the first ever plaza has been facing an inordinate delay due to several reasons.

The other proposed plazas are one each in I-8 Markaz and F-8, two in F-10, and one in G-9 Markaz.

CDA Chairman Mohammad Ali Randhawa in May this year had visited the under-construction plaza and directed the contractor to complete it by June 30. After his instruction, work was expedited.

The chairman in May had also directed to increase the workforce, adding there should be no compromise on quality with a special focus on the finishing work, including tiles and marbles.

The plaza will have a basement plus-ground floor and six storeys. It will accommodate 900 cars and 150 motorcycles. The CDA officials claimed that the plaza missed deadlines mainly because of the crossing of a big nullah through the project site forcing the contractor to fix the issue of slush and running water which took months before starting the foundation work.

Parking has become one of the major issues in Islamabad over the years as available spaces are shrinking due to an increase in the city’s population. The CDA officials told Dawn that besides a massive increase in the number of vehicles during the last two decades, poor implementation of by-laws and ill-planning also contributed to this mess.

They said parking spaces had been designed in the city’s markets and plazas in accordance with the number of shops, but with the passage of time the shop owners violated the layout and increased the number of shops. Similarly, the commercial buildings in marakiz should have adequate parking space in basements, but no focus was paid to this aspect, that resulted in traffic mess in all marakiz particularly in I-8 Markaz.

Like, marakiz, parking has also become an issue even in neighbourhood markets (class three shopping centres also known as small markets) due to poor monitoring system of CDA and weak enforcement of laws. In these classes of shops, the number of shops have also increased manifold.

Initially, these centres had nine shops (units), but the business community increased the number by converting one unit into many mini shops, putting extra burden on services and parking lots.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2024