ISLAMABAD: The city managers on Tuesday decided to press building owners to renew propertieslease aimed at enhancing the civic body’s revenue.

Sources in the CDA said that hundreds of cases of lease renewal are pending as owners of buildings avoiding CDA for years.

Besides commercial properties, the lease of a large number of agro farms, many government buildings including Punjab House, Balochistan House, KP House (which was sealed the other day for building laws violation), Gilgit-Baltistan House, agriculture institute and many universities expired years ago, but CDA has failed in taking any action and collecting extension fee.

Sources said that CDA could generate sizeable revenue from lease fee. The issue of expired leases was also highlighted by auditor general of Pakistan some years ago in audit report.

Move aimed at enhancing civic body’s revenue

Chairing a meeting, Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman Mohammad Ali Randhawa reviewed the financial position of the CDA.

He directed the authorities concerned to issue notices to all public and private leaseholders across the board whose lease agreements have expired. The meeting was attended by Member Finance and other CDA members, along with senior officers from other wings and directorates.

According to a press release, the meeting was told that apart from auction receipts, recurring resources of revenue were generating considerable revenue.

CDA chairman emphasized the need for consistent oversight by the Finance Wing to ensure progress and directed that the Finance Wing take a leading role in tracking and managing the efforts for revenue generation on regular basis and achieving the targets setfor this fiscal year.

The key issues were discussed during the meeting regarding Estate Management-I and II.

The Chairman directed to resolve the issue of electricity supply to Park Enclave II and III, as well as expediting decisions on the cancellation of allotments for defaulters in Park Enclave.

The chairman also instructed the Estate Wing to address the issues related to Built-Up Properties (BUP) in Park Enclave and the E-12/1 and E-12/4 Phases of Islamabad.

The Planning Wing was directed to prioritise the resolution of pending commercialisation cases to streamline CDA’s operations and collection of revenue. The Building Control Section was instructed to enhance its field force formation. CDA chief stressed the importance to devise plans for timely recovery of outstanding revenues ensuring that development projects across the city remain unaffected.

Electric vehicles

Meanwhile, chairing another meeting CDA chief discussed comprehensive plans to shift commercial vehicles to electric power. The meeting was attended by Deputy Director General of Public Transport Authority Rana Tariq and the other relevant officers, During the meeting, Chairman CDA emphasized the importance of this transformation, stating that the initiative marks a pivotal step toward achieving a greener, more efficient public transportation system in Islamabad.

The transition of commercial buses to electric buses is expected to modernize the city’s transport infrastructure while drastically reducing the nation’s carbon footprint, he said and directed to explore the provision of soft loans to commercial transport operators to ease the whole transition process to electric vehicles. In addition, special incentives need to be introduced to encourage a faster shift towards electric mobility.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024