PESHAWAR, March 13: The City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD) has proposed 200 to 400 per cent increase in prices of plots for government institutions in Hayatabad.

A proposal for upward revision of plot rates making them uniform with market prices was recently moved to the provincial government for approval, officials told Dawn here on Thursday.

The CDMD proposed that the per Kanal base price for government departments and institutions at office enclave of Phase-V and Phase-VII of Hayatabad should be increased from Rs0.8 million to Rs2.4 million. Likewise, for private sector institutions, it proposed revision of the price from Rs0.8 million to Rs4 million through open auction among eligible applicants.

According to property dealers, average prices of one Kanal plot in Hayatabad had climbed to Rs7 million from Rs3 million during the past three years. This had happened mainly because of less number of plots and increased demand.

The next provincial government would review the proposal and take a decision on it, the officials said.

They said that being an autonomous body the CDMD was required to provide municipal services to residents of Hayatabad, besides undertaking development work whenever required.

Since the CDMD receives no direct financial assistance from the provincial government, it generates funds through sale of plots, including the plots allocated for auction.

Government and private institutions are allotted plots at office enclave at Phase-V and Phase-VII at the minimum price fixed from time to time.

The officials said the CDMD had not revised prices of plots specified for government and private institutions according to current market trends and the government even had ordered, in many cases, allotment at Rs0.435 million per Kanal against the fixed price of Rs0.8 million.

Maintenance and development expenditures had witnessed a great surge in the past few years and the CDMD was finding it difficult to provide better municipal services to residents of Hayatabad because of financial constraints, they maintained.

To improve the financial health of the CDMD, the officials said, it was essential to revise the allotment price for government institutions at office enclave and other reclaimed areas, besides amenity plots to be allotted to the private sector.