ISLAMABAD, May 31: The financially strapped Capital Development Authority (CDA), which has been selling land to generate revenue, is again in trouble as the reimbursement claims for Sector I-15 have crossed over Rs350 million, Dawn has learnt.

A source in the civic body said: “The misadventure in Sector I-15 is costing the authority heavily.”

The residential sector was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 2006, when the property business was booming in the city.

The then government had claimed that it would provide housing facilities to the low income citizens of the capital but the promise could not be materialised.

The CDA had planned to carve out around 4,500 plots and construct 8,000 flats in the sector and received around 344,000 applications for the plots. The developers marked the cost of a three-room flat at Rs1.4 million, ignoring escalation price despite the fact that the general development cost of a flat during 2006-07 was around Rs1.8 million.

The CDA, said the source, had generated around Rs4 to Rs5 billion through the move which was grossly miscalculated by the authority’s financial managers and developers mainly because of their wrong pricing of plots and lack of any action.

The source said as the sector could not be developed the CDA was now reluctant to reimburse the investors who wanted their money back.“The officials concerned have refused to allow any reimbursement to the citizens owing to tight financial policy,” he added.

A citizen whose money remains stuck with the authority for the last four years said: “My investment in I-15 was a bad experience because had I deposited the money with any bank I could have easily generated a better interest on it.”

However, CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid said though the civic agency was facing financial constraints but it was also working on several revenue generating sources, like floating bonds etc.

He insisted that they were returning the stuck-up money to those who had requested the authority through proper channel for reimbursement of their investment.

He said they were also selling land and had generated better revenue, adding the financial position was not as bad as predicted.

Mr Sajid admitted that it was wrong pricing which led to debacle of Sector I15’s development. However, he did not say whether any action was taken against those who had pushed the authority towards the wrong move.