Cash-strapped civic body to get an influx of Rs2.88b

CDA board approves 12 of 20 bids, rejects bids below reservation price.

ISLAMABAD:

Five residential and seven commercial plots of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) will fetch the cash-strapped authority Rs2.88 billion. The authority board approved bids for about 12 residential and commercial plots in a meeting here on Thursday.

The CDA received these bids during auctions it organised on Monday and Tuesday. It received bids worth Rs4.5 billion for a total of 20 residential and commercial plots during the auctions, but all the bids were not approved by the board.

CDA spokesperson Ramzan Sajid said the CDA’s finance wing calculates a “reserve price” for each plot based on land appreciation values every year. If the bid for a plot is below the reserve price, it is rejected by the CDA board, Sajid said. He said the board makes its decision keeping in view the state of the property market.

In the residential category, the civic agency had put up ten plots in G-11/3 for auction on Monday and received bids for all of them. Only half of the bids were approved by the CDA board. It okayed the bids for all four 272.22 square yards plots, but only accepted the plot with the highest bid from among the six 355.55 square yards.

The 272.22 square yard plots received bids in the range of Rs46,500 to Rs50,000 per square yard.

Plot 556, which measured 355.55 square yards, had received a bid of Rs51,000 per square yards, or Rs18 million. All the other plots in this category had received bids of at least Rs4,500 per square yard less than plot 556.

For commercial plots, the board approved seven of the ten bids it received. Three of the four Blue Area plots, which were presented for auction, were approved by the board. Plot B-5, on the F-9/G-9 side of Blue Area, and plots B2 and B3, on the F-8/G-8 side of the Blue Area, were approved. Together, these plots will bring CDA around Rs1.79 billion.

The filling station in the north strip of E-11, which got a bid of Rs183 million, was not accepted. The two medium rise apartment plots in the same area, however, were accepted for Rs58,000 and Rs55,000 per square yard. Both plots measure 4833.33 square yards.

Sajid said the plots that were not approved might be put for sale again at a later auction.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2012.