MUMBAI: India‘s Lodha Developers said it has agreed to buy DLF‘s 17-acre plot of land in Mumbai for 27 billion rupees ($488 million).

The Mumbai-based developer is planning to build about 5 million square feet of homes and offices on the site in central Mumbai for which it has secured planning approval, it said on Monday.

DLF, India’s biggest property developer, bought the plot for about 7 billion rupees in 2005 from state-run National Textile Corporation. It plans to use part of the sale proceeds to pare its debt of about 227 billion rupees.

Shares in DLF, valued by the market at about $6.5 billion, ended up 3.5 percent at 217.70 rupees in a stable Mumbai market ahead of the news. ($1 = 55.3250 Indian rupees) Read more

LAHORE, Aug 13: To control mushroom growth of private housing schemes on agriculture zone/green areas, the City District Government of Lahore on Monday constituted an 11-member committee for making recommendations for declaration of Peri-Urban areas through initiating a necessary consultation with all stakeholders.

The Peri-Urban areas mean the land/localities that span the landscape between the contiguous urban development and rural countryside with low population density and are predominately being used for agricultural activity and are likely to be urbanised in the next 20 years.

According to a notification issued by CDGL Administrator/DCO Noorul Amin Mengal, the committee will be headed by Mr Aslam Mughal (president, Institute of Planners Pakistan) whereas Ms Ume Laila Naqvi (district officer, special planning) will be secretary of the committee.

Other members include Waseem Ahmad Khan (chief metropolitan planner, LDA), Mahmood Tamana (CDGL’s municipal services EDO), town officers (planning and coordination, Nishtar and Iqbal towns), an urban unit representative, Riaz Ahmad Chohan (chief executive of Urban Developers) and urban experts Asif Kamal, Sahir Rasheed and Samee Bin Haneef.

The committee will float proposals for earmarking boundaries of Pre-Urban areas of the city district irrespective of the controlled areas of the CDGL and LDA, besides giving valuable suggestions for saving the diminishing character of agriculture land in the city.

“The committee shall ensure that agriculture land/green areas are saved at reasonable levels to provide oxygen to congested localities in the city,” the notification reads.

The committee shall be liable to submit proposals in this regard within two weeks from the date of the notification’s issuance.

And DO (SP) Ms Naqvi being secretary of the committee will act as the focal person and ensure regular meetings of the committee, it says.

CDGL Administrator Mr Mengal told Dawn that the committee had been formed in the light of the decisions taken in a meeting held on July 31. He said the CDGL under the rules would ensure that the land use provisions under permitted, permissible and
prohibited use prescribed for residential, commercial, institutional, industrial and notified areas be strictly followed in accordance with approved Peri-Urban structure plan. He said the CDGL would also notify the area, falling outside the Peri-Urban area as agriculture land in the city. He said the entire exercise was being done to revise the city’s existing and outdated master plan.

According to minutes of the meeting held on July 31 with Lahore Commissioner Jawad Rafique Malik in the chair and attended by MNA Khwaja Saad Rafique, it was unanimously agreed to control mushroom growth of private housing schemes on agriculture land of the city by defining the Peri-Urban areas. “The Peri-Urban structure plans will be prepared as the second step to define the permitted, permissible and prohibited uses for residential, commercial and institutional activities in
Peri-Urban areas. However, as per section 51 of the Punjab Private Housing Scheme Rules no private housing scheme or land sub-division shall be allowed outside Peri-Urban areas,” the minutes report reads.

It quoted DCO Mr Mengal as saying that a committee should be constituted to make recommendations regarding areas that have to be defined as Peri-Urban with clear boundaries and that would be notified by the CDGL. “As the green areas are lungs of the
city, the proposed committee should ensure that they shouldn’t be diminished altogether,” the report quotes DCO as having said in the meeting.

Mr Mengal told this reporter the core objective of the ongoing exercise was to curb abnormal urban growth in Lahore that was consuming even the agriculture land of the city rapidly. Read more

Rawalpindi

Punjab government has not yet released funds, as announced in the budget 2012-13 for completion of ongoing development projects, therefore work on all projects has been stopped in the Rawalpindi district.

The situation in Cantonment areas is quite bad because roads even in posh localities particularly Harley Street, Range Road, Misriyal Road, Tahli Morri, Al-Mumtaz Colony, Bokra Road, and Qasim Market are in dilapidated condition and the residents are continuously facing difficult situation.

A survey conducted by ‘The News’ revealed that majority of roads in Sadiqabad, Muslim Town, Asghar Mall, Pirwadhai, Dhoke Mangtal, Adiala Road, Chak Beli Khan, Kallar Syedan, Rawat, Chattha, Taxila, Kahuta, Sagri and several other areas are also in dilapidated condition.

When this scribe contacted District Officer (DO) Roads and Highway Sub-Division, Rawalpindi, Malik Liaquat Ali Khan, he said that Punjab government has released funds to different cities of the province, but not to Rawalpindi district. “Last time, Punjab government released funds in July and we completed work on different projects on time,” he said. He admitted that majority of roads in the city and rural areas were broken and in bad condition due to non-availability of funds. He also said that they don’t have funds even to fill up the ditches on roads. Read more

RAWALPINDI, Aug 12: The shortage of funds for the expansion of Peshawar Road from Chur Chowk to Chairing Cross has delayed the completion deadline set by Punjab chief minister.The project will likely be completed by September, despite the deadline of August 14 set by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

The project started on March 3 and it has to be completed within three months but due to lethargic attitude of Punjab government’s department, the project was further delayed for August 14.

Punjab government launched the project in such a hurry that it failed to get approval from Punjab Development and Planning Commission and Environment Protection Agency.

It had given a contract to National Logistic Cell (NLC) and requested to construct the road and the provincial government will pay the amount very soon.

However, it delayed the payment and after the budget for the fiscal year 2012-13, the government able to get approval from development and planning commission and finance department sanctioned the money for the purpose.

The 20-km stretch from Chairing Cross to Chur Chowk is still incomplete. Only Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) managed to chop down 100 trees along the green belt and it has also yet to shift the service lines including water supply lines in the way from the road.

The work on service lane was also incomplete. Even, officials working on this stretch said that this stretch may not be completed by August 14. “The stretch is likely to be completed by next month as there were many water supply lines laid by cantonment board without any planning and it burst, creating a hurdle in the construction work,” said one of the officials of Punjab Communication and Works department. The construction company also held the delay in getting clearances for relocation of High Tension (HT) overhead transmission lines, land acquisition issues, which caused delays and creation of additional structures beyond the original scope of work, responsible for its slow progress.

Looking at the slow pace of work at the project, the Punjab communication and Works department special team led by its secretary will visit the garrison city last week. National Logistic Cell (NLC) made it clear that the project would not be completed by August 14 and it would be ready for inauguration after September. They were of the view that the utility service providers failed to shift its services and it would take one month more.

When contacted, PML-N MNA Malik Abrar said that the project would be completed by September due to some delays. He said that soon after the completion of this project, the provincial government would start another project to construct underpass on Peshawar Road at Pirwadhai Mor and overhead way on the other side of the road towards Tarnol. Read more