Rawalpindi: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) recently demolished a site office, along with four booking offices of several unapproved housing schemes, a news source reported. The developers had begun the sale and purchase of plots without seeking the approval of the RDA.
Officials from the RDA Metropolitan Planning & Traffic Engineering (MP&TE) branch conducted the operation. The officials also razed several amenities, including electricity poles and signboards.
RDA spokesperson Muhammad Irfan revealed that the civic body had sent notices to the owners of these housing societies under the Punjab Private Housing Schemes & Land Subdivision Rules 2010. However, he added, that owners continued to pursue these illegal practices.
Irfan stated that the owners had been illegally running the site office, violating the rules. He added that the RDA officials had received strict instructions from the RDA Chairman Arif Abbasi to take action against illegal housing societies operating in the city; including the construction of their booking and site offices and other encroachments.
RDA has also repeatedly advised the public not to invest in unapproved housing projects. People can determine the status of any housing scheme in the city through RDA’s official website: rda.gop.pk.
The civic body also sought a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the City Police Officer (CPO) in its effort to build a pedestrian bridge on the Airport Road along Noor Khan Airbase in order to reduce road accidents.
In his letter to the CPO, the RDA chief engineer had expressed his concerns that the recent improvements to the Airport Road from the Noor Khan Airbase Chowk to Karal Chowk had led to the movement of speedy traffic. He added that this had, in turn, increased the risks of accidents, some of which had already occurred as pedestrians tried to cross the six-lane road.
