RDA completes assessment of land required for Ring Road

Sends estimate to Punjab Revenue Board for approval

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), the executing agency of the Ring Road project, has completed the assessment of the market value of 20,600 kanals land it requires for construction of 38-kilometre (km) long track from Radio Pakistan on GT Road to Kheri Murat.

As per official documents read by The Express Tribune, the minimum rate has been determined as Rs60,000 per kanal and the highest stands at Rs0.3 million per kanal. The land is to be acquired from some 32 different points in the first phase.

The district price assessment committee had referred the case to Punjab Revenue Board (PRB) and following approval from there, the assessment of rates has been done in the first phase.

In the second phase, the RDA would summon objections of the landowners which would be disposed of at earliest which while it would also include compensation money for the affectees. After this process, the RDA would issue a notification for land acquisition and transfer funds to the accounts of the land acquisition collector.

Economic zone along Lahore's ring road in offing

The survey for acquiring land for 27kms long track from Kheri Murat to Sangjani has been completed too while assessment of land acquisition rates would be done by the RDA in the second phase after issuance of notification of section 4.

RDA to conduct feasibility studies

Declared mandatory to ease traffic congestion in the garrison city, the RDA has been directed to conduct the feasibility studies for remodeling of District Kutcheri Chowk and Defence Chowk.

The approval for this was given in the meeting of the Punjab Provisional Development Working Party (PDWP) on Saturday.

Upon completion of the feasibility studies, the actual cost of both projects could be calculated. As in the concept paper, the executive agency of both projects had estimated the cost of Kutcheri Chowk remodeling to be around Rs81.51 million in the first phase following with Rs800 million in the second phase. Whereas, the total cost of Defence Chowk remodeling was calculated at around Rs2.23 billion.

Both projects have been included in the annual development programme (ADP) 2020-21. The remodeling of Defence Chowk, deemed as the entry point of Rawalpindi, into a signal-free corridor has been declared mandatory to ease traffic congestion. The remodeling of projects would not only contribute to the smooth flow of traffic but are expected to boost the economic activities in the areas too.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2020.