Giving away state land: CDA land in Kurri on radar of encroachers

Civic body okayed construction of 100-feet road on its land for private housing

ISLAMABAD: One of the largest chunks of land owned by the civic authority is under threat of being encroached on by private housing societies under the pretext of developing roads

Soon after the capital was established, the government had launched the Kurri project in the mid-1960s. The first award for land acquisition was announced back in 1966.

The project spanned over 3,200 acres of land over what was once known as the Kurri Village and neighbouring mouzas of Mojahan and Rehara, located in Zone IV of the capital. It was supposed to develop like other sectors in the city.

However, there was no development in the area over the next 50 years until 2014-15 when the Capital Development Authority (CDA) Board authorised re-planning for the project.

By that time, the land for the project had been encircled by several housing projects including those launched by the CDA and by private companies. These projects included Park Enclave - I and II, Bahria Enclave, Park View City and the Pakistan Housing Authority’s apartment project

Considering the fact that the project is four times the size of a regular CDA sector, its development was a daunting task. The CDA though aimed to simplify that task by reserving the project for providing housing units for the thousands of residents of the capital, including 3,422 plots for those who were displaced when the CDA acquired the land.

After the authority directed to re-plan the project, in view of the developments of recent decades, only roads for private societies were accorded priority in the implementation plan.

Despite allocating large chunks of lands for building roads, the CDA has not received a single penny from those who stand to benefit.

“Why is CDA is wasting its precious assets even when the scheme has been launched by CDA itself,” asked a CDA official aware of the matter.

Arguing that it was a matter which required the attention of the apex anti-corruption watchdog, he lamented that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was actually playing the role of a silent spectator.

He went on to say that even though land for the project had been acquired in Kuri and its adjoining areas in 1966, the civic authority had failed to demarcate it till date. This, he complained, afforded an opportunity to land grabbers and private housing schemes to encroach on CDA land.

100 feet ‘encroachment

The most recent example of state land being encroached on by the private housing societies came when the CDA recently allotted land to build a 100-feet access road from Kurri Road.

In 2013, the CDA had approved the layout plan for ‘Park View City’, a housing scheme launched by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Aleem Khan. The scheme was sprawled 1,067.90 kanals in the revenue estate of Malot. In May 2014 the CDA granted the project a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to start construction. But in December 2017, the layout plan of the scheme was withdrawn.

The move was challenged before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which endorsed the CDA’s decision and dismissed the petition. However, the owners of the Park View Enclave filed an intra-court appeal (ICA) against the decision before a division bench which directed the applicant to submit a second proposal along with an undertaking regarding the access road on March 19, 2018.

CDA Member planning Asad Mehboob Kiyani confirmed that the IHC had directed the CDA Board to consider the second proposals submitted by the Park View Enclave and grant access via a 100-feet-wide road from the main Kuri Road. The CDA board ultimately granted the proposal early in May.

Another concerned CDA official, who spoke to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said to build the 100-feet-wide access road, land equivalent to 122 kanals would be used. He pointed to the last such road built where 250 kanals of CDA’s land was stashed away to the benefit of a private housing society.

This, the CDA official said, caused huge financial loss to the government. CDA sources pointed out that there was no provision in the CDA Ordinance which allowed the CDA Board to allow construction of a road on its land for the commercial interest of a private housing scheme.

Another official claimed that the CDA had abandoned plans to build a landfill for solid waste disposal only for the benefit of a private housing scheme at the cost of public exchequer.

When CDA Member Finance Dr Fahd Aziz was asked about the financial assessment of land, he said that the finance wing does not carry out any financial feasibility assessment study for land meant to provide road access to private housing schemes. He clarified that the wing mostly conducts financial assessments of land in CDA’s developed sectors.

CDA Chairman Usman Bajwa explained that CDA will remain the owners of this land.

Explaining the rationale for approving the road, he said that its construction would help enhance market value of CDA’s land in the area.

Kiyani suggested that a precedent for approving such construction existed wherein the CDA had granted permission to build a road and two interchanges on government land for private housing societies located to the south of the capital.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2018.