LAHORE: In its first meeting after its constitution on Tuesday, the governing body of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) approved a Rs96.16 billion annual budget for LDA and its subsidiary organisations — Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (Tepa) — for the fiscal year 2024-25.

In a meeting presided over by the governing body’s Vice Chairman Mian Marghoob Ahmad, the participants accorded approval to Rs59.18 billion budget for the LDA, Rs34.5bn for Wasa and Rs2.49bn for Tepa.

The authority also approved the classification and reclassification (commercialisation) of eight major roads in Lahore, besides giving a go-ahead for the establishment of the Directorate of Marketing and Business Development, reforms and recruitment in the Strategic Policy Unit.

The amendments introduced in the LDA Transfer of Properties Regulation 2023 and the Management of Properties of LDA lease right regulation were also approved in the meeting.

The development schemes planned to be completed in the fiscal year under the sustainable development programme and regeneration plan in Gulberg Scheme and MM Alam Road include underground wiring, expansion of parking, pedestrian walkways, cycling lanes, asphalt work, solar lights, greenbelt, park restoration and others.

Members of the LDA governing body, including MPAs Hassan Riaz, Naeem Safdar and Sultan Ahmed Bajwa, technical members Abdul Hannan and Akbar Sheikh and LDA DG Tahir Farooq attended the meeting.

The LDA chief engineers, additional director generals (ADGs), Tepa chief, Wasa MD, chief town planners, chief metropolitan planner, representatives of Lahore commissioner, Housing, Finance departments, Planning & Development Department, Local Government and Nespak also attended the meeting.

Gas theft

In efforts to combat gas theft, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Tuesday claimed to have disconnected 8,722 illegal gas connections, besides imposing fines totalling Rs176.13 million, in the last four months.

During this period, the SNGPL teams disconnected 19 commercial and special domestic meters for meter tampering and an additional 10 connections were terminated for illegal gas usage via bypass or fake meters.

Furthermore, 3,450 domestic meters were disconnected for tampering, while another 4,979 connections were severed due to violations related to meter tampering and bypass or fake meters. Additionally, 264 connections were disconnected for the use of compressors.

“The SNGPL teams have imposed fines amounting to Rs176.3 million on account of theft of gas measuring 53,203 HM³ of volume against gas theft cases and imposed fines.

The teams also lodged 384 FIRs against the individuals involved in gas theft, resulting in the arrest of 15 offenders,“ says a spokesman for the company.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2024