PESHAWAR, Nov 20: The provincial local government and rural development department will shortly execute the land-use planning and zoning framework project across the province to control unauthorized uplift activities in the urban and rural areas of the province, officials said.
The project will help stop conversion of agricultural land into residential, commercial and industrial areas, and to conserve depleting forests and water resources of the province.
Official documents reveal that the province is fast loosing its natural habitat, forests, agricultural land due to lack of planning, population’s increase and political will.
Initially, the project will be launched in three districts of the province, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan and Charsadda. Later it will be extended to other districts.
The three-year-long project would begin with an estimated cost of Rs30.16 million, but its duration would be extended, according to the sources.
Though the government of Chief Minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan Abbasi had planned to begin land-use planning and zoning in the province and paper work was almost completed, the army-backed government put it into cold storage at that time.
A local government department official said the provincial government had released the first tranche of Rs3.5 million for the plan. The government would finance the project from its own resources.
The Essential Institutional Reforms Operationalisation Programme (EIROP), funded by the UNDP and the Swiss Development Corporation, is providing technical assistance to all the tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs) and 24 district governments in this regard.
Project director Dul Ahmad told Dawn here on Thursday that a centre of land-use planning was being established in Peshawar to facilitate operations of the project. A team of professionals and geographers would work out plans for the district governments and build capacity of all TMAs at the centre.
He said the experts would prepare district-wise digital maps and satellite images for particular areas. The centre would also support the TMAs and district governments to implement their special plans.
Officials said the EIROP had prepared a draft report on zoning, land use and development control regulations for TMAs in the province and handed over it to the local government department for final approval.
The local government department would make necessary amendments to the Land Revenue Act to ensure full implementation of the laws and bye-laws. The TMAs and district governments concerned would be the implementing bodies to regulate development activities in public and private sectors.