PESHAWAR, April 17: The future of the ‘Peshawar structure plan’, involving multi-billion rupee investment, hangs in the balance because of financial constraints and lack of legislative mechanism to carry out reforms in various sectors, official sources said. The plan, envisaged for a period of 18 years starting from financial year 2002-03, is not likely to materialize like the previous plan, which could not take off after being put in place in 1986 for a period of 14 years.

Senior government functionaries reffered to a World Bank report which said that lack of understanding of the problems of land, particularly as a marketable commodity, poor coordination among government departments and private sector and formal sectors and insufficient resources were the basic factors that hampered plan’s implementation.

The sources said that lack of expertise had also jeopardized the proposed land-use planning and zoning project, which aimed at controlling haphazard and ill-planned development, exploitation of natural resources and conversion of agriculture land into residential and commercial land in the province.

The government had allocated Rs30 million for the project, but despite availability of funds it could not take off.

The sources said that master plans were prepared for big cities, which needed updating every five to ten years. However, the Peshawar Structure Plan 1986 was not approved till the end of the last century.

They said that on the directives of the provincial government, the City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD) reviewed and updated the structure plan in the year 2002, but the plan could not take off due to shortage of resources.

The plan proposed the land-use planning and controlled development in selected areas to ensure provision of services and community facilities by establishing civic community centres on the ring roads and regional-radial roads intersections and allowing guided development in other areas.

The plan recommended area action plans around the intersections of the regional-radial roads, ring road and early completion of G.T. Road widening and intersections improvement.

The sources said that the 400-page document had proposed a complete ban of conversion of residential land into commercial, and shifting bus terminals and stands from the Grand Trunk Road to other alternative sites. The plan has also recommended shifting of airport from the present “vulnerable site” in the centre of the city and using this highly valuable land for developing a properly planned city centre.