LAHORE, May 12: Independent urban development experts, town planners, consultants and other stakeholders in a three-hour long debate on Saturday sought to revise Lahore Metropolis’s existing Master Plan (2005-2021) in order to cater to the needs of common people.
The debate was organised by the Lahore Development Authority after the sitting City District Government of Lahore’s Administrator and DCO Noorul Amin Mengal floated the idea, directing the quarters concerned to seek input from the experts.
While rejecting the existing plan for being outdated and unviable for the country’s second largest city of around 10 million people, they urged the government officials, experts and the public at large to jointly own the city to save it from various problems causing destruction to the original beauty of historical places, heritage, culture, traditions, peace, safety and values.
“After going through the existing plan I have noted that it misses the important factor of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Neitheranyone discussed this issue nor tried to even adopt the DRR and safety measures while implementing various development projects in the light of the plan in question,” Mr Qamar Islam, an urban development expert from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
commented while giving his input on the issue.
He said though 160 countries of the world including Pakistan had already signed the UN charter on adoption of safety measuresin urban development, the country’s institutions were ignoring this while launching various schemes.
He said the existing plan clearly indicated a lack of coordination among Provincial Disaster Management Authority, LDA, CDGL, Town Municipal Administrations and public-sector consultants (TMAs) while devising various strategies and policies for the Punjab capital’s uplift. He urged the quarters concerned to incorporate DRR component in the plan while revising it.
Prof Sattar Sikandar, a senior town planner, said the plan was unviable for a city having a radius of 50 to 100 miles. “I amastonished that none of them bothered to include topic of metropolitan regional planning in this plan. So it has not been viable since it was born in 2005,” he said, adding that the plan was based on secondary data (not the primary data) obtained from previous plans, census reports and other sources.
“The data quoted in the plan is unrealistic and unreliable that cannot be followed in any way while devising various policies in the wake of urban development,” he said.
He said the people concerned would have to incorporate the metropolitan regional planning issues in the new/revised plan in order to assess trend and routine business of Lahore’s neighbouring districts. He said the mushroom growth of scores ofresidential schemes/towns toward city’s south must be controlled in the light of the upcoming free trade between Pakistan and India through the Wagah Border.
Former LDA deputy director Sheikh Rashid said there was a need to revise the plan. “When this plan was envisaged in 2005, the city had six constituent towns/TMAs but the number of towns increased to nine. Moreover, while preparing plan theconsultants relied on the secondary data and not the primary data,” he explained. He said the entire city development wasbeing done on Multan and Ferozepur roads. Many housing projects were launched on these roads that consumed a massiverural land and deprived the people of vegetables/fruits on cheaper rates.
“What is the harm in developing residential project at the land situated after crossing the Ravi Bridge,” he said, requesting for getting such issues incorporated in the plan at the time of its revision process.
Architect Nayyar Ali Dada said though the revision of the master plan was important at the moment, none of the stakeholders owned Lahore and its plans. “While revising the existing plan, the decision-makers must avoid making any change to special areas of Lahore such as its historical places, heritage, culture, traditions and customs,” he advised.
He said the stakeholders would have to make a vision for maintaining the natural and historical beauty of the city. “If we adopt such approach in revising the plan, we will not only preserve the city’s historical places and culture but also bring about modern changes to the routine business of the city,” he said.
Architect Dr Shabeehul Zaidi criticised a consultancy firm (Nespak). “I think they took this matter as a project and not a continuous process to formulate strategies for the urban development. He said the firm had missed around 15 to 20 important surveys and primary data while finalising this.
Dr Azharuddin recommended incorporating proper framework regarding establishment of hospitals and marriage halls and maintaining smooth traffic flow in the city in the new plan.
MPA Hafiz Nauman informed the participants that though the chief minister had formed various committees on city’s development plans, none of them submitted its report in this regard. He said in the revised plan we have to decide also aboutfinalising boundaries/revenue limits of the city. And we should expand the city vertically or horizontally. This we will have to mention in the plan,” he recommended.
Aslam Mughal (town planner) recommended institutionalising the master plan. He also sought setting up a separate masterplanning wing in the LDA besides creating awareness and other activities among the stakeholders to own the city. He deplored mushroom growth of housing colonies in various parts of the city, mainly Multan, Raiwind and Ferozepur roads.
Dr Ghulam Abbas Anjum said a lot of residential schemes in Lahore had not only consumed the rural land but also deprived thepeople of fresh vegetables. He also sought inclusion of the civilian population of DHA and Cantonment Board in the legalframework of the CDGL and the LDA.
He urged the DCO to immediately impose a ban on the development of any further residential scheme in the city.
DCO Noorul Ameen Mengal underscored the need for a single planning and development authority for all areas falling in the jurisdiction of Lahore district, which could be held responsible for implementation of the Master Plan.
LDA DG Ahad Cheema said an advisory board for collecting and formulating practical proposals for the Master Plan would benotified very soon. Regional planning of Lahore and nearby cities would also be focused in the new plan, he added.