CDA likely to reinitiate Gandhara Triangle project

Revenue-generating housing project would be set up near Margalla Avenue and GT Road

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) seems set to attempt launching a number of revenue generating development projects soon.

In a recent meeting, State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry directed CDA officials to launch revenue generating projects such as Gandhara Enclaves so that the rising housing needs of the city could be catered to.

The Gandhara Triangle is considered one of the revenue generating projects which had been planned to develop at 70 acres land available at the intersection of under construction Margalla Avenue and GT Road.

“Housing with a commercial area can be developed within a short time period,” A CDA official told The Express Tribune, adding that the area is located at an attractive and accessible location at the foothills of the Margallas, providing all modern facilities, and coupled with a good location to attract investors.



CDA sources said the project was initiated several years back but stalled due to the influence of private housing societies in the area. He said it was estimated that the CDA can generate billions by selling 32 commercial and more than 600 residential flats and plots of different sizes.

The sources said that the rise of unregulated and unplanned housing societies and limited development of new sectors by the CDA took place simultaneously and showed there was a criminal nexus involving some corrupt CDA officials in the mid-2000s, when mushroom growth of private housing societies was recorded to benefit private housing societies in federal capital. He said that investors prefer government housing schemes over private sectors, and if the CDA had continued work on Gandhara Triangle, private housing societies in the area would not have started up.

In its fiscal budget for 2016-17, the authority had allocated funds for the development of sectors C-15, C-16 and I-12, but completion of these projects is still far off. “We opened new schemes including Park Enclave Phase-II and C-15, besides resuming development work in sectors I-12 and D-12 in 2016,” the CDA official told
The Express Tribune.

He said that development work in D-12 had been completed, while five major roads have been constructed and allotment to affected persons had been carried out.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2017.