LAHORE, Feb 17: Public utility plots in kutcha abadis under the Lahore Development Authority would be allotted through an open auction, LDA chairman Mian Amer Mahmood said on Monday.

Presiding over a meeting of the District Kutcha Abadis Development Committee, he said the auction of the plots, earmarked for the construction of mosques, schools, dispensaries and vocational training institutions, would be advertized in the near future.

Mr Mahmood, who is also district Nazim, said the water supply, sewerage and roads’ construction schemes, costing Rs20 million, would soon be completed in 14 kutcha abadis. He said the development in 12 other abadis would be started during the current fiscal at a cost of Rs36 million.

The Nazim said 15,000 families living in the kutcha abadis in the provincial metropolis had been granted proprietary rights during the past year and a half whereas only 12,000 families were given ownership rights during the past 17 years.

The committee decided to simplify the procedure for transfer of ownership of the kutcha abadis’ houses to the heirs of the original allottees in the LDA. The ownership would be transferred on the identification of the heirs by the concerned union council Nazimeen or councillors and verification by the revenue officer of the area.

The committee also decided to issue the allotment letters in Urdu to the residents of 35 kutcha abadis on railways lands and to build a wall between the kutcha abadis and the railway line for the residents’ safety.

It was also decided that the cost of five marlas from the kutcha abadis’ residents would be recovered at Rs172 per marla and that of excess area at the 1985 market prices. The development charges would be recovered at Rs500 per marla, the committee decided.