CM orders land acquisition for New Peshawar Valley

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has ordered the officials to finalize arrangements for issuing intimation letters to the owners for land acquisition so that physical work on the mega housing scheme of New Peshawar Valley could be started.

He issued the directives while chairing a meeting on the New Peshawar Valley project here, said a handout. Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, Additional Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah, Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali, Secretary for Local Government, Zaheerul Islam, Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) Director-General Fayaz Ali Shah and other relevant officials attended the meeting. The chief minister directed the officials to set up a PDA sub-office, police and revenue staff posts on the site of the scheme for timely disposal of matters related to land acquisition and for preparing PC-1 for the construction of access roads to the project site.

Earlier, the participants of the meeting discussed the progress made so far on the implementation of the housing scheme. It was informed that 8,000 kanal of land has been cleared for the project whereas the final masterplan has been formally approved by the PDA board.

As per the masterplan, the housing scheme will be established on 1,86,400 Kanal of land out of which 41 per cent area has been allocated for residential plots and apartments while 28 per cent for the construction of roads.

Up to 16 per cent of the area has been reserved for parks and open spaces, 7 per cent for public buildings and 5 per cent for commercial activities along with parking while 2 percent of the area has been proposed for graveyard.

Initially, 62,056 residential plots of different categories have been proposed. These include 16,312 plots of 3 marla, 17,201 of 5 marla, 3,402 plots of 7 marla, 9,526 plots of 10 marla, 13,415 plots of 1 Kanal, 1,494 plots of 2 Kanal and 706 plots of 4 Kanal.

Some 8,000 Kanal of land has been reserved which would also be utilized for the provision of residential plots on the need basis.

Other key features of the project include Civil Secretariat, Media Enclave, Sports City, Education and Health City which will be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities of international standard.

It was informed that a mega park “Khyber Park” would also be developed under the project which would have cultural villages, Gandhara Museum, theme park, forest, adventure area and all other state of the art recreational facilities.

The participants were informed that a project for the construction of access roads to the site of the scheme had been reflected in the new annual development programme, and PC-1 of the same was being prepared which would soon be presented to the competent forum for approval.