Mapping Lahore: ‘A fraction of city’s area houses majority’

Lawyer Rafay Alam says planning initiatives have mostly facilitated the wealthy.

LAHORE:

About 66 percent of Lahore’s population lives in just 10 percent of the area, lawyer Ahmed Rafay Alam said on Saturday. 

He was speaking on A History of Lahore Through Maps at the Last Word cafe.

Alam said planning initiatives in the city had mostly been aimed at facilitating the wealthy. He said no serious effort had so far been in the city to provide housing to low-income groups.

He said of the three colonies set up in the city immediately after the partition to deal with the sudden rise in housing demand, Shadbagh was meant for low-income households. He said the price of the smallest plots in the colony was Rs80 to Rs100 which was not affordable for the poor-income households.

The other two colonies were Samanabad and Gulberg. He said the latter was meant to be a housing colony for the city’s elite. He said the minimum size of plots offered for sale initially in Gulberg was an acre. He said the design of most houses constructed in the area was inspired by English architecture.



Alam said initially there were plans to set up housing schemes for low-income families with money generated from sale of property in Gulberg.

He presented various maps of the city dating back to 1847. He talked about the establishment of Cantonment and Model Town Cooperative Housing Society during the British rule.

He said the British had initially planned to establish cantonments in Anarkali and Badami Bagh areas. However, he said the location was changed in view of frequent malaria outbreaks in the areas because of their proximity to the River Ravi. He said the new location was chosen by the then British general serving in the city. “He rode a few kilometres out of the city and stopping at a random point,” he said. He added that the spot where the general had stopped was now marked by a plaque put up at Girja Chowk.

Alam said Model Town was established in 1934 along the lines of cooperative housing societies then popular in Europe. He said Kemchand had initially wanted to build the society on land in surrounding Jahangir’s tomb. He said Sir Ganga Ram, who was funding the project, advised against the selection of that location in view of its flooding by River Ravi waters almost every other year. “Ganga Ram used his contacts in the government to obtain the land where Model Town is currently located,” he said. He added that the land had belonged to the Kot Lakhpat forest reserve.

Alam said a master plan created for the city by a Japanese company in 2004 had cautioned against setting up of housing colonies in the eastern parts because of its proximity to the international border. He said the areas were set aside as farm land. However, he said the Lahore Development Authority, which had then endorsed the idea, had recently amended the plan to develop real estate in eastern areas as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2015.