LDA sets up agency to encourage construction industry

LAHORE:In line with the vision of the prime minister, the governing body of Lahore Development Authority has established Ravi Urban Development Agency besides taking a number of other decisions for encouraging construction industry in the city.

The third meeting of the governing body of Lahore Development Authority was held here Monday which was chaired by the LDA Vice-Chairman SM Imran while Director General Ahmad Aziz Tarar briefed the meeting about the compliance status of earlier decisions of the authority.

The meeting was attended by Wasa Vice-Chairman Sheikh Imtiaz Mehmood, MPA Sadia Sohail Rana from Lahore and Muhammad Atif from Nankana Sahib, Major (R) Syed Burhan Ali, Engineer Amir Riaz Qureshi, Wasa MD Syed Zahid Aziz and representatives of provincial departments of housing, local government, finance and P&D as well as of Commissioner Lahore.

The LDA governing body decided for setting up Ravi Urban Development Agency (RUDA) under LDA Act 1975 to exercise all functions under the Act in its area of jurisdiction. It also constituted a committee, headed by Maj ® Syed Burhan Ali, for need assessment to operationalise the agency and to submit the proposed plan within one month. Other members of the committee will include MPA Muhammad Atif from Nankana Sahib and LDA Director General Ahmad Aziz Tarar.

The meeting decided for forwarding a summary to the Punjab government for getting cooperation of other relevant departments, including Environment Protection Agency, Revenue, etc for simplifying the procedure for approving new private housing schemes within minimum possible time.

It recommended a check list of documents to be attached, set up timelines for fulfilling various procedural formalities and proposed to depute representatives of other relevant departments at the One Windows Cell of LDA for on-the-spot initial scrutiny of applications for expeditious processing of such cases.

The authority also decided for approving all types of residential as well as commercial building plans within 30 days. It decided to send a summary to the government for approving timelines and a flow chart for this purpose by taking other relevant departments onboard. For promoting use of latest technologies in construction of new buildings in the city, the authority allowed adding a new clause in Building & Zoning Regulations 2019 to allow provision of steel structure in all types of construction. However, in such cases, the owner(s) will be required to provide structure stability certificate from the registered structure engineer about the safety of the structure.

The meeting also approved a comprehensive SOP for taking action against illegal constructions /conversions in the LDA’s controlled area. It approved distribution of functions among Town Planning wing and Enforcement Directorate by authorising the Enforcement directorate for carrying out operations against unlawful constructions on identification of such structures by Directorate of Town Planning.

For attracting maximum number of bidders for the purpose of revenue generation by awarding lease rights of LDA owned properties, the meeting decided for decreasing the amount of earnest money for participating in the auction proceedings besides reducing the amount to be retained by LDA as security deposits for the convenience of successful bidders.

In order to facilitate the government departments to which public utility sites of LDA were allotted on reserve price, the authority decided to enhance the deadline for depositing 30 percent of the total cost of plot as down payment from 30 to 90 days from the allotment of plot by the relevant committee. It also withdrew the rebate of 5 percent in case of lump sum payment of cost of plot by the government department.

The meeting approved Master Plan 2040 0f Wasa and decided to make it a part of proposed integrated master plan of LDA.

It also approved SOP for adjustment of Wasa bills for the commercial, industrial and non-residential properties which remained locked/abandoned during lockdown period announced by the Punjab government to stop the spread of Covid-19. The meeting decided for creation of pension fund for Wasa employees and amended delegation of powers for authorising Deputy Director Finance Wasa (LDA) for security bills up to Rs100,000.