‘Jewel of Islamabad’: Civic agency fails to hand over plots to investors, again

Planning Wing blamed for the delay .


Danish Hussain September 29, 2013
After failing to meet the first deadline of June 2011 for Park Enclave, CDA promised the project would be completed by December 2013 but in a recent Senate body meeting, the authority said the deadline would be extended to March 2014. PHOTO: FILE.

ISLAMABAD:


False promises and missed deadlines have become a hallmark of the capital’s civic agency. The latest example is failure to hand over plots to investors in the Park Enclave, once again.


The planning wing of the Capital development Authority (CDA) is being blamed for the delay.

Officials of different wings including environment, water management, structure and design have vetted the project’s preliminary planning document, but the planning member is yet to sign it.  Resultantly, the document which was cleared by the Engineering Wing in June is back in the same wing.

“The planning wing returned the PC-1 without signing or stating any reason,” confided a senior official of the Engineering Wing, who added that it was lying around at the office of planning director and was returned only after multiple reminders. “Without the planning wing’s endorsement, it cannot be processed further,” the official said.

Further development can only be initiated after the Development Working Party (DWP) gives the go-ahead, once it’s cleared by various wings. Every project in the capital traces its way back to the planning wing, as it approves layout plans for each one of them.

The poor show by the planning wing is due to multiple reasons. The future of the member planning is still hanging in the balance after a petition was filed against him by his predecessor, while planning director-general and his deputy have yet to be appointed even after the lapse of several months now. His appointment was challenged in the Islamabad High Court, though the apex court allowed him to work until the case is decided.

The planning regional director has been entrusted with the powers of the two officers in addition to the ones he was already exercising, making the job more difficult.

An official of the planning wing, requesting anonymity, said it was the responsibility of the member planning to sign the document but he was not interested. “The Rs3.7 billion plan is just doing the rounds, while the authority continues to extend the deadlines of the project’s completion,” he added

After failing to meet the first deadline of June 2011 for Park Enclave, CDA promised the project would be completed by December 2013 but in a recent Senate body meeting, the authority said the deadline would be extended to March 2014.

“Considering the current progress, it seems impossible to complete by the project even by December 2014. Without the PC-1’s approval, CDA cannot release payments to contractors engaged at the site,” remarked another official.

CDA has recently revised the payment schedule for Park Enclave, extending the time period for submission of the fourth, fifth and sixth instalments.

An overseas Pakistanis Aslam Mahmood Siddiqui, who invested in the housing society, said everyone would like to see this project move forward but the question of whether payments made as instalments will lead to the development of this project or to the CDA officials’ pockets needs to be answered. “How we can ensure that funds collected from the allottees are used for the development of Park Enclave?” he questioned.

Several attempts were made to contact CDA Chairman Nadeem Hassan Asif, but he did not respond.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2013.

COMMENTS (1)

saleem | 10 years ago | Reply

This is just one of several examples of how are over excited judiciary has left government departments ineffective.

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