RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) is planning to lease land allocated for a sewage treatment plant (STP) to a private company to develop a housing scheme, in exchange for which the company will help finance and build the Leh Expressway in the form of a public-private partnership.
A senior RDA official told Dawn that after the RDA did not find any investors for the expressway project, it has planned to use 5,500 kanals of land allocated for a sewage treatment plant near Adiala village to attract private companies that can finance the project and generate earnings by developing a housing scheme.
He said the provincial government cannot afford to pay for the multi-billion rupee project and wants to bring in private investors to begin working on the expressway on the basis of a public-private partnership.
In exchange, the company developing the housing scheme would finance, build Leh Expressway
A consultant was hired last year and has been working on completing the PC-I, which will be presented to the Public Private Partnership Authority after Eidul Azha, he added.
The official said the RDA wrote to the Punjab government to use state land for a housing scheme, but did not receive a response.
The authority has previously tried to use the land for a housing scheme but was not allowed to do so by the provincial government. He said a new proposal has been sent to the government which it will make a decision on soon.
The land in question was purchased by the Punjab government in 2006-07 to set up a sewage treatment plant under the Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project, which was funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The provincial government spent Rs118 million on 5,500 kanals of land in three villages - Gidhpur, Gorkhpur and Jabar Miana - which was handed over to the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).
In 2010, Wasa built a boundary wall along the land to protect it from encroachment while the sewage treatment plant project was shelved due to differences between the Punjab government and the ADB.
“The STP project was made to transport the city’s sewage in the Leh Nullah to Adiala village, where it was to be treated and used for agriculture,” the RDA official said.
Another senior RDA official said the government could not change the land’s purpose, and it would be difficult to convert it for the establishment of a housing scheme.
The official explained that the land was procured from landowners at the government rate for a public welfare project. If a housing scheme is developed there, the landowners may go to court and demand the market rate.
“Because of these issues, the provincial government is not likely to allow the change of purpose, as it would cause controversy,” he said.
When contacted, Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood said that legal assistance has been sought from the Punjab Law Department regarding the utilisation of the vacant land in Adiala village for a housing scheme for the expected financier of the Leh Expressway project.
He said work on the expressway project was expedited because the government is interested in starting it as soon as possible. A survey on land that has to be acquired around Leh Nullah has been completed, and the consultant is working on a feasibility study that will be completed soon.
Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2020