ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is unlikely to implement the uplift projects it had announced in its 2008-09 budget due to the worldwide financial crisis.

Dawn has learnt that CDA Chairman Tariq Mehmood Khan has asked his new member, finance, to re-organise the financial affairs of the Authority in the face of the turbulent situation.

However, he stressed that all on-going development projects must be completed as planned, in time and without sacrificing quality, a source in the CDA said.

Former managers of the Authority had announced an ambitious development budget of Rs21 billion, more than four times the non-development expenditure.

A number of development projects proposed by the CDA are likely to be shelved due to financial crunch it has been facing, a source in the authority told Dawn.

The authority, according to the source, had planned to auction plots to meet its development expenditure mentioned in its annual budget 2008-09 but due to overall glut in the market and sensing poor response of the investors, the CDA has shelved the plan as it is not ready to sell its land.

The Authority had targeted to fetch over Rs5 billion through the proposed auction of plots.

It is likely that a few new projects initiated by the authority cannot be executed in the near future.

The sources said the job of the new boss of the CDA has become more challenging in the prevailing circumstances when stock exchange and real estate markets are stumbling.

It has been learnt that the Authority had made a false claim while announcing its current year’s budget that it would be a surplus budget with huge volume of development expenditure amounting to Rs21 billion and non-development expenditure of Rs5 billion.

When contacted, a senior official of the authority, who wished not to be named, said it was wrongly assumed that it would be a surplus budget because there was a deficit of Rs5 billion in the budget and this gap was to be filled by auctioning plots.

The CDA chief directed the newly-appointed member, finance, to chalk out a comprehensive financial policy for organising the financial affairs of the civic body in a better way.

However, he ordered the department concerned to complete all the ongoing developmental works timely keeping in mind the quality.

Meanwhile in a meeting with officers of CDA at the Jinnah Convention Centre recently, he said the process of restructuring of the authority would start soon to make the neglected departments functional.

Mr Khan urged the officers of the authority to utilise all their professional efforts for building the image of the CDA.

“I am proud of the fact that Islamabad is one of the beautiful capitals in the world,” the chairman said giving credit to the CDA officers. “I expect the same enthusiasm from them for the future development of the federal capital,” he added.

He urged the officers to utilise their professional skills for the completion of the ongoing developmental projects and also plan new ideas for further beautification of the capital city, because the aim of the CDA was to provide more facilities in line with modern technology to the residents of Islamabad.

“The officers should take care of their subordinates by steering them in their works and my doors are open to all, however, preference will be given to intelligent and hardworking employees on pure merit,” he said.

Talking about the departments of engineering, environment and sanitation Mr Khan said these were public dealing departments, which must pay more head to construction and maintenance of roads, proper sanitation and frequent water supply.