ISLAMABAD: Grappled with chronic issues of adverse possession and encroachment on acquired land, the city managers on Tuesday decided to involve the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) for monitoring encroachment and “effective urban planning in both sectoral and non-sectoral areas”.

During a meeting of heads of the CDA and Suparco, it was decided that the former with technical support of the latter will set up a modern lab at the CDA headquarters, which will be equipped with modern technology.

“Suparco’s advanced satellite imagery will help resolve land issues in various sectors and ensure the swift elimination of illegal constructions and encroachments,” said CDA Chairman Mohammad Ali Randhawa.

He said the use of satellite technology would help effective urban planning.

Advanced satellite imagery will help ensure swift elimination of illegal constructions and encroachments, says CDA chairman

“This cooperation between CDA and Suparco will open new doors for the development and urban planning of Islamabad,” he said.

The meeting was attended by Mr Randhawa and Suparco Chairman Mohammad Yousaf Khan along with concerned officers.

“During the meeting, several key areas of mutual cooperation including the use of advanced satellite imagery, drone technology and educational collaboration were discussed. Suparco assured its full technical support for establishing a modern lab for CDA,” read a press release issued by CDA.

The Suparco chairman said they were always ready to provide full cooperation to CDA in aligning the ongoing development activities in the federal capital with modern technology.

It is relevant to note here that some years ago CDA had set up a Geo Spatial Technology Wing aimed at shifting planning wing from the conventional method of planning to an information technology-based system.

According to the working paper of that project, besides performing other functions, it was supposed to have high-resolution satellite imagery of 0.5/0.3 metre along with aerial imagery of specified areas (as per the requirement of CDA).

The imagery was to be used for mapping of ICT, land cover classification mapping, temporal analysis of development progress. All geospatial datasets were to be used to aid and provide technical inputs for designing, modification and finalisation of ICT master plan.

However, the project failed as no proper cooperation was sought from Suparco.

Sources said that apparently learning a lesson from the failure of Geo Tech wing, the CDA management has now decided to the use technology such as drone images and monitoring of its acquired land through Suparco.

It may be noted that the CDA has failed in developing new sectors. It had completed the full development of D-12 some two decades back. Officials said adverse possession of land was the major hurdle in development of sectors.

“After 20 years, CDA completed substantial development work of sector I-15 as recently it started handing possession letters to allottees, which is good thing. But more focus should be paid on other stalled sectors,” said an official, adding that in the past CDA after acquiring land for sector development abandoned it.

“In the recent award of C-16, Suparco helped the CDA in identifying built-up property that existed when the land award was announced. So for resolving land and built-up property issues of all other stalled sectors, CDA now will get help from Suparco,” said an official of the civic agency.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025