Development: LDA directed to ensure public access to roads

Supreme Court requires LDA to provide public access to roads, passages and thoroughfares before approving schemes.

LAHORE: A full bench of the Supreme Court required, on Thursday, that Lahore Development Authority (LDA) provide the public access to roads, passages and thoroughfares in housing societies before approving their schemes.

The bench noted that the public lacked access to roads developed by the societies under the LDA after the society marked the roads and passages exclusively for its own use.

The bench also required the LDA to ensure that new schemes do not take advantage of the infrastructure of other societies to raise the prices of their property.

The court was hearing a case filed by Azeemullah against Venice Society regarding the multiple problems residents faced due to poor infrastructure in the society for the past 20 years.

The LDA submitted that Rs100 million was needed to complete the development. The court directed the LDA to use the proceeds from plots in the society on its completion and disposed of the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2010.