Financial issues: CDA plans to auction 28 nurseries to generate funds

The plots are located in Orchard Scheme and on Kashmir Highway.

ISLAMABAD:

The cash-strapped Capital Development Authority (CDA) plans to auction 28 nursery plots to generate revenue.

“We have marked new plots in the Orchard Scheme as well as along the Kashmir Highway. Some more also yet being identified for [auction],” CDA’s Member Planning and Design Syed Mustafain Kazmi told APP on Wednesday.

He said the CDA would license out the nurseries’ plots through open competition as per the new policy formulated on directives of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Kazmi said earlier the CDA used to dispose of nurseries’ plots among the parties already running the nurseries in Islamabad, but now the board had directed to go for open auction. There are 38 parties that manage nurseries in Islamabad.

The PAC had opposed the CDA’s policy of leasing out the nurseries among existing lessees and asked that the plots be put up for an open auction. The planning wing will finalise the modalities of the plots and table the report in the next board meeting.

The CDA had also been mulling the establishment of nurseries along the stretch of Islamabad Expressway falling between Faizabad and Koral Chowk. However the plan is being reviewed on security reasons due to frequent VIP movement on the Expressway, a CDA official said. The official added that the project’s location may be shifted away to Koral Chowk, which intersects with the road leading to the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

Kazmi said at time of its establishment, Islamabad was in “immense need” of plants and greenery to build its green character. So private parties were leased 2.25-acre plots. There was no policy governing the allotment of the plots at the time, he added. The plots were leased out in 1970 for 20 years and extended twice for ten years in 1990 and 2000, respectively.

According to the new policy, the applications would be scrutinised by a three-member committee and the rent shall be increased by 25% after every three years. The licensee shall not be allowed to assign, sublet, mortgage or transfer possession of plots licensed for nursery. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2013.