Pre-urban planning of two Pindi tehsils completed

Planning report of other tehsils will be submitted to RDA in May

RAWALPINDI:

In the first phase of determining the new urban boundaries of Rawalpindi district for the next 25 years, pre-urban planning of Gujar Khan and Kotli Sattian has been completed and objections have been sought from the citizens.

The planning report of other tehsils of the district for the next 25 years will be submitted to the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) by consultant Mott MacDonald in the last week of May.

Determining the urban limits in all the tehsils of the district will help in estimating the extent of residential, commercial and open areas required by the people living in the urban limits for the next 25 years.

By determining this matter, planning for the needs of the expected growing population based on urban and rural areas will be possible. With this, due to the lack of planning on the determination of urban and rural boundaries, the unsettled problems being faced by the citizens at present will also be resolved.

According to RDA’s chief planner Jamshed Aftab, the authority has decided to launch an awareness campaign regarding the determination of new urban boundaries of the district.

On the instructions of RDA Director General, Muhammad Saif Anwar Jappa, the services of Mott MacDonald Pakistan have been hired to create awareness about the new determination of urban limits (Pre-Urban Structure Plan and Site Development Zone).

The boundaries are being determined with the help of this company for the next 25 years in which different types of zones are proposed such as green zone, residential zone, industrial zone and agro-farm zone etc.

The chief planner said that the RDA has prepared 25-year planning documents in collaboration with the local government regarding the Rawalpindi Master Plan, which includes areas of four tehsils of Gujar Khan, Kallar Syedan, Taxila and Kahuta, housing schemes, industrial areas, the central business and other places.

He said that housing societies and industrial areas would not be built outside the site development zone and added that as per the directives of the government, the areas outside the site development zones would be for agriculture and the environment.

Aftab said that meetings were held with all the stakeholders in the tehsils and later copies of the proposed maps were given to the assistant commissioners of the four tehsils so that they interact with the local stakeholders and the public and it has been suggested to display them in the tehsil offices. “The pre-urban structure plan has been uploaded on the RDA’s website,” he said

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 6^th, 2023.