Minister for modifying building by-laws

LAHORE: Caretaker Provincial Minister for Housing Saeedullah Baber has directed LDA officials for looking into the possibility of allowing commercial activities on major roads which had been declared ‘frozen’ for this purpose.

He passed on these directions during a briefing session at LDA office, Johar Town. On arrival at LDA office, the minister was received by LDA Director-General Amna Imran Khan and other officers.

The minister directed for chalking out a long-term master plan for Lahore Division in view of the influx of population in Lahore from other areas of the province and allocating special zones for residential, commercial, educational, industrial and other purposes in the Lahore Division.

He underlined the need for rationalising and modifying building regulations for encouraging construction of high rise buildings in the city, eliminating complaints regarding accumulation of water in basements of buildings situated along busy roads and other such by-laws for public convenience.

He called upon for making LDA a vibrant public service organisation and according top priority to public facilitation in day-to-day issues. Additional Director General (HQ) Samia Saleem informed the minister in her briefing that a facilitation counter of Punjab Land Record Authority had recently been set up at the One Window Cell of LDA and LDA working booklets had been prepared for different wings. She told that for looking after service matters of LDA employees and taking care of financial issues and accounts subjects, SAP system had been adopted by LDA for making it an efficient public service delivery organisation.

Additional Director General (Housing) Zeeshan Shabbir Rana informed the minister that property record of four housing schemes of LDA, including Gulberg, Jubilee Town, LDA Avenue-One and Mustafa Town had been made available online for processing applications pertaining to plots situated in these scheme in minimum possible time. Computerisation of record of Sabazazar Scheme is underway and computerisation of record of Johar Town Scheme will be taken up after that, he added. He revealed that in view of complaints regarding bogus exemption of land in Mustafa Town, files of more than 700 plots in the scheme had been cancelled after detailed sifting of land record of the scheme. A reference amounting to Rs4 billion had been sent to anti-corruption establishment in this regard, he added. Chief Engineer, LDA, Mazhar Hussain Khan informed that LDA completed a number of development projects during 2017-18, including construction of Beijing Underpass, widening of Canal Road and construction of Captain Mubeen Shaheed Underpass at Gurumangat. Work on Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project and Shaukat Khanum Chowk Flyover is in progress, he added. Chief Metropolitan Planner Shakeel Anjum Minhas told that the process for according approval to new housing schemes had been sped up and more than 50 new schemes had been given a go-ahead in recent months while cases of about 179 schemes were under process.