New DG hopeful about project completion in the ‘near future’
Khawar Randhawa
The Faisalabad Development Authority has failed to prepare a master plan for “the Manchester of Pakistan” despite the lapse of seven years and doling out of precious public money.
The authorities have also failed to impose penalty on the consultant firm hired for the purpose in 2016 with a one year dead line for completion of “this important task.”
To determine rural-urban demarcations and set zonal directions, The FDA had initiated master plan project in 2013, after which pre-qualification of consultant firms process started with issuance of advertisement in national newspapers.
The private firm had to conducted agriculture, commercial, industrial, domestic, green and brown areas survey along with schools, hospitals, graveyard and traffic counting census to set benchmarks for future housing, urbanization and commercial district within the City and rural areas, which was to be completed during one year.
It is to be noted that the FDA governing body had also approved preparation of the master plan at a “specially-convened-meeting” in 2015 and the Punjab government had also sanctioned a grant of Rs50 million for the project.
Upon completion of the initial survey, the private firm had submitted first deliverable in 2018 which was full of technical faults and anomalies besides the firm had cited several references of Karachi’s socio-economic and geographical conditions contrary to the ground realities of district Faisalabad.
The FDA authorities had returned the faulty document, directing the consultant firm to initiate a new grassroots survey of the rural-urban localities.
According to the national reference manual 1982 and international practice, a master plan based on city town planning, should be revised after every five years but the situation in FDA is otherwise because the authority had issued transport management plan of the city in 1997 and had not bothered to prepare or even revise the earlier master plan during the last fifteen years.
Resultantly, haphazard and unplanned urbanization has become order of the day with unbridled developers devouring millions of acres of green areas annually.
Reliable sources, seeking anonymity, informed that peri-urban structure plan 2015 was enforced by the defunct city district government six years ago, setting up zones of urban, rural, green and commercial cum industrial areas but the private housing mafia, with the connivance of FDA management, has been encroaching on a vast green agricultural lands, failing the Prime minister’s vision of preservation of green areas for future generations.
Seemingly, the FDA authorities have ruined all the efforts of the federal and provincial governments to eradicate air pollution in Pakistan.
Former FDA DG Khawaja Suhail had set the deadline to issue master plan for the outgoing month of March but with his transfer, it’s seems the much-needed master plan project may be put on the back burner as the present FDA management is least interested in preparing the long term and valuable document for setting up future zoning for “the Manchester of Pakistan.”
When contacted Dr Faisal Azam, newly-posted FDA Director General, claimed that preparation process of “the master plan” is underway and multiple stakeholders input is yet to be taken.
“Time is not far when public hearing will be ensured inviting people’s objections and consultations will be held with multi-layered development sector”, he expressed his pledged.
The DG promised to the Pakistan Observer reporter to bring about “the said document within one and half month positively,” saying that delay in the master plan is not due to shortage of funds.
