Real estate: Nearly half willing to give up land for plots in colony

‘None of the landowners surveyed in four villages have objected to the establishment of GDA City on their land’.

GUJRANWALA:

Almost 50 per cent of the people owning land on the site for establishment of a housing colony by the Gujranwala Development Authority have agreed to surrender their land in exchange for plots in the colony, a report submitted to the GDA governing body on Friday says.

The report is based on survey of Jathna, Aroop, Khizer Chak and Sangowali villages whose farmland falls in the site selected along Sialkot Road near Nandipur.

“The landowners who supported the idea will be compensated at the rate of 48 marlas (roughly two and a half kanals) for each acre of farmland that they surrender to the GDA,” Assistant Director (Town Planning) Ahsan Ullah Cheema told The Express Tribune.

Cheema, one of the four officials who carried out the survey, said responses from most of the 150 landowners had been obtained during the campaign that lasted till Thursday. He said the land would be purchased from the landowners who opposed the idea of swapping their farms with plots in the colony, second option in the survey form given to the landowners. The remaining, he said, asked the team for some time to discuss the two options with their families.

He said nearly 1,200 acres of land will be acquired for the colony, about 400 acres more than what the GDA governing body had approved earlier.

The assistant director said the additional land would be used to establish recreational facilities including a park. He said governing body’s approval for the additional land would be sought in the next meeting. GDA Director General Hasan Raza Jafri has already declared  ‘reserved’ the initially-approved land under the Section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act in a meeting 20 days ago.

Deputy Director (Estate Management) Mirza Shah Zaman Baig told the Tribune that an advertisement campaign for the colony, named GDA City, will start in another 15 days and applications for allotment of plots would be opened within one-and-a-half month. He said the GDA was also considering setting up a power generation plant for the colony on Nandipur Canal.

The project was approved four months ago.

The GDA estimates that the population of the four villages is between 30 and 33 thousand. The most populous village, Aroop, has a population of about 15,000. Most of the landholding is in one-acre, three-acre, 10-acre and 15-acre divisions.

Section 7: After declaration Collector to take order for acquisition

Whenever any land shall have been so declared to be needed for a public purpose or for a Company, the [Executive District Officer (Revenue)], or some officer authorised by the [Executive District Officer (Revenue)] in this behalf, shall direct the Collector to take order for the acquisition of the land.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2012.

Correction: In an earlier version of the article, the figure 30 was incorrectly written as 30k in the picture caption. The error has been rectified.