‘No plans for charged parking in capital’

State minister says no such proposal under consideration

ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Tariq Fazal Chaudhry apprised the Senate that there was no proposal under consideration for constructing paid car parking in the federal capital.

Replying to various questions during Question Hour, the minister said no feasibility study was conducted for construction of paid car parking.

He said there were some 21 companies which were collecting car parking charges. Capital Development Authority (CDA) charged Rs7.7 million from Marriot Hotel and Rs7.2 million from US Embassy under parking fee head.

To a supplementary question, the minister said Safa Gold Mall in Sector F-7 was sealed despite severe pressure for violating the CDA’s laws.

To another questions, he said the government was going to establish the smart school titled ‘Establishment of Smart Schools in ICT.’ The project has been approved by CDWP forum at a cost of Rs630.9 million, he said and added that authorisation and administration approval has been issued.

Chaudhry said the aim of the project is to change the culture and practices by moving away from memory-based learning designed for the average student to an education that stimulates thinking and understanding in students.

An amount of Rs200 million has been allocated for the said project by the PSDP for the current Financial Year 2016-17, he added.

Tariq Fazal said Montessori classes were also started in over 70 schools for the first time and complete education and free books were being provided to the students in government education institutions till class 10. He said summary has also been sent to the prime minister for provision of milk and biscuits to the students up to class five while school bag and uniform from class six to 10.

Terminal works

Meanwhile, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Aftab Ahmed Sheikh on informed the Senate that over 90 per cent work has been completed on the new Islamabad International Airport and it would be completed by December 2017.

Replying to various questions during Question Hour, the minister said under the revised PC-1 the cost of the project was increased from Rs37 billion to
Rs81.171 billion.

To a question Sheikh said Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has five Regional Meteorological Centers (RMCs) located at Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Gilgit-Baltistan respectively for the provision of weather and climate services throughout the country. These centres are supported by a network of seven weather radars, he added.

In addition, he said PMD has some specialised centres to cater diversified needs and were included Flood Forecasting Division based at Lahore, National Drought Monitoring Centre based at Islamabad, National Agro-Meteorological Centre based at Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2017.