Development projects: CDA wants private firms in the loop

ISLAMABAD:

Civic agency officials on Thursday told a national assembly standing committee that joint ventures with private companies were the only way to execute development projects and make ‘progress’.

A meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat was also told by Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials that only “automation of CDA records and human resources” could help plug loopholes and streamline the authority’s affairs.

The meeting, chaired by Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan, also discussed rising encroachments on CDA land, illegal settlements and verification of the credentials of CDA employees recruited during the last five years.

CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal told the committee that a draft amendment to the CDA Ordinance, which would allow the civic agency to carry out joint development projects with private firms, was pending cabinet approval.

The CDA chairman said the civic agency was relying on sale of land to meet development and non-development expenditure, which was not a long-term solution.

The CDA will provide land as equity to private firms, which in return will develop it in line with CDA plans and share profits with the civic agency, Afzal told the committee.

The committee also discussed an illegal slum called Afghan Basti in sector I-11. The chairman informed the committee that most such settlements are established on CDA land, but Afghan Basti is on land already allotted to individuals.

The CDA chairman told the committee that several attempts were made in the past to remove illegal settlements but failed for one reason or the other.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2014.