Anti-encroachment: Rawalpindi to get uniformed force

Sardar Naseem says new parking plaza, more floors to RDA plaza in the works

RAWALPINDI: To better tackle encroachment in the city, the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has decided to form a uniformed anti-encroachment force which would crackdown against encroachers.

In this regard, the city had been divided into four sections.

This was stated by RMC Mayor Sardar Muhammad Naseem while talking to the media at the press club on Monday.

The mayor said that to make anti-encroachment efforts more effective, he said that the city had been divided into four parts including Gawalmandi, Raja Bazaar, Commercial Market and Sadiqabad where encroachment would be removed from main roads and markets.



“The strength of anti-encroachment department had been increased from 16 to 50 people,” Naseem said, adding that the staff have now been provided with dark grey coloured uniforms with RMC monograms.

“Mobile anti-encroachment teams have also been established to keep main roads of the city clear of encroachment,” the mayor noted. Noting that encroachment was a chronic issue in the garrison city, the mayor said that the problem had increased manifold over the past ten years.

He said that the RMC in cooperation with city traffic police and traders would continue its campaign against encroachment.

Other issues

Apart from encroachment, the mayor said that one of the major issues of the city on his radar was the acute lack of parking space in the urban areas.

“Lack of parking plazas and uncontrolled commercialisation in the city has created parking issues. It is hard to find parking at major business spots in the city,” he lamented.



In this regard, he said that the RMC was mulling plans to add additional floors to the Rawalpindi Development Authority parking plaza located at Fawara Chowk. Moreover, he said that they are planning to build another parking plaza at the site where the old RMC building once existed on Saddar City Road.

The mayor added that in future, no commercial plaza would be allowed to be built without including sufficient parking space. To ease traffic congestion on the existing roads, the mayor claimed that they were considering plans to build a new road on banks of Nullah Leh from Pirwadhai to Saddar City Road.

To improve visibility at night, Naseem said that the RMA was planning to install LED lights as street lights in the city at a cost of Rs300 million.

He claimed that the step would help decrease electricity bills for the RMC.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2017.