LAHORE: The deputy commissioners of 21 districts in Punjab have been asked to submit master plans based on the land use of their districts by the end of this month.

The DCs were directed in a meeting presided over by Local Government & Community Development Department Secretary Mian Shakeel Ahmad.

The DCs and municipal planning officers attended the meeting through a video link while Project Management Unit (PMU) Director Umm-i-Laila and other senior officials attended it in person.

The master plan preparation project aims at mitigating the land use exploitation, diminishing agricultural lands, mushroom growth of housing schemes and capacity issues of local governments. It also aims at achieving compact development through preparation of land use and zoning plans, balanced spatial and economic growth, preservation of prime agricultural land through zoning regulations and policies and enhanced inter-city and intra-city accessibility and mobility through proposals of transportation and connectivity plans.

“In phase-1, 11 districts were shortlisted for preparation of their master plans. Of 11, the plans of 10 districts have already been prepared whereas the plan of Rawalpindi is yet to be finalised. And hopefully, it will also be completed soon,” an official source privy to the meeting explained while talking to Dawn on Thursday.

Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Sahiwal, Okara, Sahiwal, Khanewal, Vehari, DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan were included in Phase-1. Under phase-2, the master plans for Faisalabad, Sargodha, Multan, Jhelum, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad, Attock, Chakwal, Bhakkar, Khushab, Mianwali, Chiniot, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Narowal, Pakpattan, Lodhran, Layyah, Rajanpur and Bahawalnagar, the officer said.

The PC-I for project phase was approved in June 2022 and the work related to hiring consultancy firms was launched in July and completed on Oct 30. After making inception reports of 11 districts, the land-use classification maps of these districts were prepared and a special report on the industrial importance of Sialkot was also made. Field verification was carried out through data confirmation from planning officers and field inspectors of respective districts while preparing the maps. The PC-I for phase-2 (21 districts) was also approved at a later stage.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, Secretary Mian Shakeel directed Project Director Laila to ensure timely approval and signing of land use/master plans according to the deadline.

“There is a need for immediate implementation of master planning to tackle future urban and rural challenges. Therefore, all 21 districts must submit their plans by end of this month after getting these endorsed by District Planning and Development Committees (DPDC).

He emphasized that the project management unit must ensure to incorporate stakeholders’ suggestions in the final plans while preparing land use plans prior to the DPDC’s approval.

“The plans must be implemented in letter and spirit by discouraging illegal constructions and ensuring protection of agricultural land.” He said a provincial-level planning support system is being developed to ensure the implementation of approved maps. This system would provide rigorous monitoring in case of any legal violations, with each local government having its own dashboard to monitor illegal development through an AI land cover detection system while it would generate automated zoning reports for each district, he said.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2024