CDA to upgrade all public parks

Islamabad : Capital Development Authority (CDA) is planning to set up at least one toilet each for males and females at all public parks to facilitate them in responding the nature’s call.

“We have decided to establish toilets at all public parks of the federal capital, in addition to cycling and walking tracks,” Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Amir Ali Ahmed told this agency.

Amer Ali, who seems quite eager to restore the capital city’s glory through inclusive steps, said massive development work was being carried out at all the parks to provide quality recreational facilities to Islamabad dwellers.

“Currently, there are 235 small and big parks in the federal capital,” he said, adding the CDA was focusing on upgradation of 50 parks in the first phase.

He said the upgradation work in these parks were in full swing, hoping that the transformation of all the 235 resorts of Islamabad into fully-equipped recreational facilities within a few months since the CDA had recently taken the charge of key departments back from MCI, that included environment directorate as well.

Commenting on the development projects, the public appreciated the government for taking environment and public friendly initiatives.

“Parks in the capital city were once the hallmark of Islamabad - the Beautiful - but the long-prevailed negligence of the authorities concerned had turned them into dens of addicts,” Khurram Shehzad, a resident of sector G-7 told this agency.

He extended his gratitude to the departments concerned for carrying out renovation and restoration work in the city.

However, people living in the rural areas of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) also made appeal to the city managers for setting up parks in their respective areas. Raja Khurram Nawaz, a local Member of the National Assembly (MNA) told APP that the unplanned development in the outskirts of Islamabad left the rural people in lurch, depriving them of the basic amenities of life.

The MNA urged the CDA to follow Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Clean & Green Pakistan vision by setting up new parks and developing green spaces in other than sectoral areas as it had owned sufficient land in different areas.

He mentioned the unnoticed encroachment of the state land by miscreants in the rural areas such as Burma and Farash Town.

The residents in some areas had even started burying their loved ones in the state land.

Khurram said the conversion of state land into green spaces and parks would save it from encroachment and help provide outdoor recreational opportunities to the residents.

CDA Chairman Amer Ali also regretted over unplanned development in the rural areas during the past, with the scope of Authority’s zoning rules and regulations limited to the urban areas only in the past. He, however, said the civic body would try to build parks and green places in rural areas with the extension of its zoning laws to those areas.