No bigwigs interested in Iqbal Park food courts

Parks authorities forced to invite tenders for the second time

LAHORE: The Lahore parks authorities have been forced to re-invite tenders for setting up food stalls inside the Greater Iqbal Park after no reputable companies came up to bid for them.

After cancelling the tenders floated earlier, the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has once again invited bids for setting up the food courts.



Official documents show the authority wanted to lease out operations of two food courts covering 15,000 square feet each, initially for a period of five years. The PHA has fixed November 28 as the deadline for the submission of proposals.

The Greater Iqbal Park project was all set to open its doors for the general public but its inauguration has been delayed for a while. The renovated park is the only thematic one in the country built around the history of Pakistan and the independence movement. Traditional Mughal architectural designs have been used everywhere in the park. Four national memorial monuments have been built and four gates have been erected to depict the culture of the all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir through the architecture.

PHA Director General Mian Shakeel Ahmad told The Express Tribune that the authority wanted to outsource food courts operations to some well-renowned food chains, which could offer a variety of cuisines like traditional specialties of all four provinces and some fast food as well.

The PHA had invited proposals for food court operations but hardly any big names showed interest, forcing the authority to cancel the tenders floated earlier.



The Greater Iqbal Park has been developed on an area of about 127 acres, comprising a circular garden and existing access road of about 26 acres, 45 acres of park area and 56 acres of Minar-e-Pakistan. The conceptual design for the Greater Iqbal Park originated from the idea of enhancing the area for creating a welcoming environment within the densely populated areas of the Walled City and its adjacent inner city.

The park project was originally envisioned in the 2013-14 fiscal but it could not be started due unavailability of funds. The project was initiated in previous the fiscal year and the government had fixed June 30 as the deadline for project completion.

The park will also have a national history museum and an amphitheatre that are at an advance stage of development. They are expected to the crowd pullers for history lovers as the museum will have huge collection of artefacts related to Pakistan Movement as well as the history of the subcontinent. The museum will also have a digital archive to attract the younger generation.

In addition, dancing fountains, buggy rides, soft-wheel train rides and golf cart rides are a few other attractions for the general public. The PHA has completed the detailed horticulture works in the Greater Iqbal Park by using colourful flower plants in different sections of the park.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2016.