ISLAMABAD: The city managers have finalised a blueprint for the construction of flats for slum dwellers of F-6 and F-7.

A committee of the CDA has finalised designs of the buildings in which 700 flats would be built in G-7 to accommodate the slum dwellers of F-7’s France Colony and F-6’s 100 Quarters.

The proposed apartments will be constructed in G-7 where the civic agency has identified seven acres.

“If the proposed project is translated into reality it will be a great service to poor segments of the society who are currently living a miserable life,” said an official of the CDA who requested not to be named.

He said the CDA would carry out the work as a pilot project which could be replicated to accommodate slum dwellers of other informal settlements in the city. Once started, he added, the project could be ready in one-and-a-half years.

700 flats will be built in G-7 to accommodate residents of France Colony and 100 Quarters, official says

“But we will accommodate only those who are living in authorised slums,” he said.

When contacted, CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed said his team was working on the project and initial work such as designs of buildings had been completed.

“On the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, we are carrying out this social housing project,” he said, adding that imagery of existing slums had already been taken from Suparco.

Sources said the flats would be constructed in ground-plus-three buildings.

The prime minister a couple of months ago directed the CDA chairman to prepare the plan for “the regeneration and transformation of katchi abadis and construction of high-rise buildings there”.

Sources in CDA said about 700 people were living in two slums of F-6 and F-7 and they would be shifted to the flats.

In reply to a question, an engineer of the CDA said approximately Rs2 billion would be spent on the project which could be collected from the slum dwellers on soft installments while the CDA would get possession of land in F-6 and F-7 worth over Rs20 billion.

There are around 50 slums, including 10 so-called legitimate, where people are living in deplorable conditions. There is no regulation and availability of services in these slums.

Officials in the CDA said a vacant land in G-7 had been selected by the CDA chairman for the construction of the flats and shifting of the slum dwellers of F-6 and F-7 there.

They said in the past the CDA had made a failed attempt to shift the slum dwellers to Alipur Farash where they had been allotted plots. But the allottees after selling their plots/homes returned to the city area.

Alipur Farash, dubbed as a modern shelter urban programme, was started in early 2000s in order to provide dwellers of four slums - Essa Nagri I-9, Haq Bahu I-11, Muslim Colony and Dhoke Najju of I-10 - plots.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2019