LAHORE, Aug 26: The City District Government Lahore has yet to initiate action against the illegal constructions in city areas other than Shahalam where collapse of unapproved floors of a building recently caused heavy loss.

“There are 968 commercial structures along 118 city roads that have been built either without an approved site plan or in total violation of it,” CDGL officials told this reporter on Saturday.

According to them, the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town had 234 such structures on its 29 roads, the Nishtar Town 191 on seven thoroughfares, the Samanabad Town 158 on 35 roads, the Wagha Town 127 on five, the Ravi Town 105 on 10, the Shalimar Town 101 on 13, the Allama Iqbal Town 99 on three, Aziz Bhatti 74 on nine and Gulberg Town has 37 illegal buildings on its seven roads.

A number of plazas had also been erected without the provision of parking space and emergency passage. “The constructions at plots housing bakeries near the first roundabout and an eatery-cum-super store in the middle of the Samanabad Market, departmental stores at the Moon Market of Allama Iqbal Town, Gulberg’s Main Market, Liberty Market, near Shadman Market, Model Town Link Road are the classical examples in this regard,” the officials said.

Multi-storey commercial structures started mushrooming in every part of the metropolis around two years ago when the city administration decided to wrap up the Lahore Master Plan by ending the classification of residential and commercial areas.

“All major roads were either placed in permanent or in temporary commercial areas category, giving builders a free hand to start construction activity wherever and how they liked. Previously, a builder had to obtain a No-Objection Certificate from the neighbours before erecting a multi-storey structure in residential areas. But, the new system allows the builders to start construction after payment of commercialization fee that varies from area to area,” they said.