ISLAMABAD: The civic agency is now planning to conduct a weekly car bazaar on the premises of Pakistan Sports Complex as its earlier proposal of setting this facility on the right of way of Srinagar Highway would add to traffic load and cause congestion on the busy artery.

Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal in response to a question from a citizen at the Islamabad Literary Festival said: “We are planning to conduct the weekly car bazaar at Pakistan Sports Complex and hopefully from next Sunday we will hold the first bazaar.”

Currently, there is no such official facility in Islamabad, but people do a small scale sale-and-purchase business in G-8 and G-9 Markaz on Sundays.

A weekly bazaar takes place on Friday on Murree Road in Rawalpindi while on every Sunday a major bazaar is set up in Taxila. Last week, the CDA management planned to start the weekly bazaar near Tarnol on the right of way of Srinagar Highway.

However, when the civic agency got feedback from stakeholders, they were told that a car bazaar in the right of way of Srinagar Highway will add to the traffic load on the busy artery and create congestion.

Therefore, officials of the civic agency said the idea was dropped and now talks were being held with the management of the sports board to hold the car bazaar there. They said the CDA and the district administration will depute an official of the excise and taxation office in the bazaar for extending timely help to the purchasers.

Recently, the CDA in a bid to move out car showrooms and auto-workshops from markets announced waiving the land use conversion fee for such businesses if they were set up along nine major roads of Islamabad instead of markets.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2023