RAWALPINDI: District Price Assessment (DPA) Committee sent its recommendations to Punjab Revenue Board on Thursday for a final approval of the prices of land to be acquired for the construction of the terminals for metro bus service in the garrison city.

However, the traders rejected the rates fixed by DPA committee and said that they were planning to meet Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif to fix the rates of the property as per the market value. DPA committee, led by Additional District Collector Revenue Talat Mehmood Gondal, has finalised the prices for the commercial and residential properties on Murree Road, from Saddar to Faizabad, which will be affected due to the construction of 10 bus stations on the 23.2km-long elevated road in Rawalpindi.

The price of commercial land has been fixed at Rs2.2 million to Rs4.4 million per marla, while Rs2 million to Rs2.2 million per marla have been fixed for residential land.

Mr Gondal said that the DPA committee sent recommendations to Punjab Board of Revenue for approval, as the board was the competent authority to approve or reject the rates.

He said that after the approval of the price of the land, Punjab Board of Revenue will issue the final notification and the land collector will invite all the affectees to hear the objections within 15 days.

He further said that the commissioner would issue the final notification for the procurement of land from the people and pay the amount as per the formula issued by the government, adding that the whole process would take two to three weeks.

Total 21 kanals of land will be acquired on Murree Road; Punjab government has released Rs1.8 billion for this purpose. The administration claims that traders agreed on the price during the meeting with Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) and Project Director Metro Bus Project Zahid Saeed.

It was also agreed that the government would provide 12 months’ rent to traders who were running shops on rented property, as compensation money. The rate of the rent was fixed at Rs30,000 to Rs400,000 per month, depending on the location.

However, Rawalpindi Traders Association President Shahid Ghafoor Paracha told Dawn that the traders rejected the rates and would come on streets if the government wanted to impose the rates as per their choice.

“The price of the property in some areas on Murree Road is more than Rs10 million and the government is trying to get the land at a cheaper rate, which is unfair. More than 70 traders, settled in the areas since almost 50 years, will be unemployed and the government has offered nothing,” he said.

“We requested Mr Shahbaz Sharif to hear the concerns of the affectees, but all the requests fell on the deaf ears,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2014