ISLAMABAD The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is considering transforming the Jinnah Super Market, city's main commercial area, into a 'City Centre' to attract tourists and facilitate locals.
An official of the civic agency told Dawn on Wednesday that 'Every big city has a main business hub, but Islamabad is without one.'
Though Islamabad has markets in every sector, there is no landmark commercial centre in the city and the CDA is devising a plan to redevelop Jinnah Super on modern lines to turn it into such an attraction.
All the modern cities, especially the metropolitans around the world, have city centres, which reflect different regional flavours and colours of the respective societies. Jinnah Super is one of the oldest markets of the city and has always attracted shoppers as well as visitors from other cities.
The official added that CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi had directed the civic agency to come up with a plan along with proposals for the project.
Mr Elahi was of the view that Jinnah Super Market, being one of the prime markets of the country, was known to every visitor to the capital and regarded as 'the face of Islamabad.'
The official said 'We want to make the market a more secure area for the tourists and the citizens to do shopping without much hustle.'
The CDA will be consulting the traders before finalising any development plan.
'We want to encourage the citizens to come to the market on foot after parking their cars at a designated site.' The civic agency, he said, would construct a centralised parking area to resolve the prevailing parking problems.
Meanwhile, the CDA chairman visited the Jinnah Super Market and gave a patient hearing to the complaints raised by the local traders.
Mr Elahi informed the traders that special emphasis was being laid upon resolving the problems of the shop owners. He added that as a first step, market coordinators had been deployed in different markets of the city.
He also took serious note of encroachments in the market and asked the Directorate of Municipal Administration to immediately launch a campaign to remove them to facilitate the traders as well as the visitors.
