6,500 acres of land to be allocated for housing scheme around Ring Road

Rawalpindi : Some 6,500 acres of land is likely to be allocated for Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme around mega Ring Road project that would greatly help provide

housing units to the common people at affordable prices.

According to the official documents, the land would be acquired in ECO Residential Zone and construction of housing units would be completed in the coming years.

Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar has already approved the proposal to build housing units in tandem with the construction of the Ring Road.

The blueprint of the Ring Road project at the moment provides the only framework so the modalities would be sorted out in the next few weeks before its formal inauguration by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

There were few tentative maps/layout plans of the Ring Road projects but now the Punjab chief minister has approved a final map that would officially provide a roadmap of the project.

The official record of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) revealed that the efforts to launch the Ring Road project were first initiated in 1991. The successive governments failed to translate it into reality due to various reasons including the non-availability of funds.

In 2008, a fresh feasibility study was conducted to construct the road from Channi Sher Alam to Fatehjang near the New Islamabad Airport through foreign investors on the basis of private-public partnership.

In that plan, the RDA made changes by reducing the total length of the road from 75 km to 54 km. It also dropped the idea of laying a rail track along the road to connect the main railway lines with

the new airport. Now the Buzdar-led Punjab government is determined to launch it by year-end and complete it in the next three years.

The documents also showed that the Cattle Market and Vegetable and Fruit Market would be in the same zone along with the Ring Road.