CDA will divide the land into 100 commercial plots, according to Deputy Director General Planning CDA Ghulam Sarwar Sindhu. “We would also build residential flats to attract investors,” he added.
But the auction is not without controversy. Chairman CDA Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, at the time of his takeover about two years ago, had said that “they value their land will not sell it to get funds”. During Elahi’s tenure, however, CDA has not followed the implied land-conservation policy and has been auctioning off its land at frequent intervals.
In May 2010, CDA held a two-day open auction where it sold 16 commercial, industrial and orchard plots; and 21 residential plots. The authority received Rs244.23 million for the residential plots and Rs1.57 billion for the other plots.
Officials inside the authority, on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the Planning and Land directorates of CDA had “strongly opposed” the auction of land near IJP Road. However Finance Wing - the main proponent of the scheme - was able get the plan approved by the Board of Directors due to Elahi’s intervention. Insiders say the auction is necessary to meet the expenses of the ongoing development projects and to meet the recurring expenses.
Wasim Saleem Bhatti, an urban development expert, termed the CDA’s auction policy a “financial suicide”. He said the authority should focus on chalking out long-term plans to generate revenue. “Through joint venture CDA would be in a position to get revenue and it will also not need to sell-off its land,” he said.
Member Finance CDA Saeedur Rehman, however, insists that CDA had “no other option but to generate money through auction”.
Joint ventures, according to Rehman, are not a viable solution for the financial crunch CDA was facing because “private organizations don’t bother to fulfil their commitments”.
“We were having a hard time managing our employees’ salaries even. The auction will be a life injection for the civic body, which is undergoing severe financial crunch,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2010.
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