RDA allows construction of 10-storey buildings

Board meeting approves partial use of residential premises for commercial purposes

RAWALPINDI: Construction of 10-storey buildings and partial use of residential premises for commercial purposes has been approved for Rawalpindi.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) in its 45th governing body meeting has decided to adopt Lahore Development Authority (LDA) building by-laws regarding and zoning formula in Rawalpindi with slight amendments according to the requirement of the city.

The meeting chaired by RDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza was attended by RDA Director General (DG) Ammara Khan, Managing Director (MD) Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) Muhammad Tanvir and MPAs including Haji Amjad Mehmood, Nasreen Tariq, and officials concerned.

The LDA Building and Zoning Regulations (2019) were also discussed in the meeting and it was decided to enforce them in Rawalpindi with some amendments.

Under the new regulations, people could allocate 10 per cent portion of a residential building for commercial activities.

The construction of high-rise buildings of up to 10 floors will also be permitted.

The meeting approved regularisation of structures errant to the approved building plans would be allowed. However, the meeting decided that regularisation of such unauthorised structures would be done after imposing a heavy fine.

The meeting also approved handing over control of water supply schemes of Wasa in constituencies of PP-12 and 13 to community-based organisations (CBOs).

The Wasa officials briefed the members that the administrative control of water supply schemes, developed on a community basis, in two provincial constituencies was handed over to WasaASA. However, the related water schemes have been a burden on the authority and it has become impossible to run them due to heavy loss the officials told. They added that due to these schemes, Wasa’s deficit is going up gradually.

The officials requested cancelling of the notification issued in this regard and to hand over their control back to CBOs.

The recommendation of the water supply management agency was approved and it was decided to send this recommendation to the Punjab government for final approval.

RDA, being the executive agency of the mega projects of Leh Expressway and Ring Road, reviewed the thus-far progress made on both projects and decided to expedite the work on them.

The participants also decided to speed up the kitchen gardening projects and measures to save and use rainwater for irrigation and different purposes.

Rainwater harvesting

The meeting approved Construction of first underground water tank in the Wasa Headquarters at Liaquat Bagh for storing rainwater. This pilot project will be completed in one-and-a-half month and save millions of gallons of water for later use.

The stored rainwater could be used for both irrigation and cleaning purposes.

Wasa and PHA have jointly approved the project for the use of ablution water for irrigation and for washing floors.

The project will be formally inaugurated by Commissioner Mohammad Mahmood and Wasa MD Muhammad Tanveer and PHA DG Shafqat Raza will jointly oversee the project.

As pilot project an underground wastewater tank will be built to collect ablution water flowing out of Liaquat Bagh Jamia Masjid. The water will be used to for plants in Liaquat Bagh.

Meanwhile, Wasa on Saturday disconnected water supply to as many as 350 defaulters in the district.

The agency directed the car wash facilities not to install recycling plants and issued notices to the units that have not cleared their outstanding bills.

Wasa MD Tanvir said that operations against defaulters and illegal connections would continue while the mechanism to get such connections restored was being revised. The process was being made difficult to discourage the practice in the future, he added.

He said that consumers would be fined heavily for illegal connections along with bills which would be generated from the date of installation.

Kitchen gardening

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and RDA are all set to ink a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) next week for kitchen gardening project in Rawalpindi.

The MOU signing ceremony will be held at the RDA office next week.

The RDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Murtaza said that the Turkish agency will provide them with gardening pots and seeds initially.

In the pilot project, the kitchen gardening will be done in only a few selected houses in the city. Upon its success, RDA will create an atmosphere of kitchen gardening by running an awareness campaign in the city.

Further, Murtaza told that the first sapling under the rainwater harvesting project would be planted on February 1. Explaining the project further, he said that TIKA would assist the authority in collecting rainwater from metro stations, Liaquat Bagh mosque and RDA office’s roof and storing it in underground water tanks.

He added that the stored water would be supplied to different mosques for using it for ablution purposes and watering plants on the green belt.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2019.