Slow work intensifying housing shortage

Housing shortage is growing in the federal capital with each passing day as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has not so far completed the development work of already launched residential sectors, which will aggravate the problem.
These sectors include Sector I-15 and E-12 while development of sectors I-14, I-16 and D-12 is also not properly completed. All these sectors, except Sector I-15 which was launched by the authority in 2005, were started over 15 years ago. The main reason for the inordinate delay in the development of these sectors is negligence of the CDA’s concerned department which encouraged slow development work, an official said.
The official said that these stalled sectors had the capacity of 35,000 housing units and the authority could easily control the housing shortage in the city, if they sped up development work on these sectors. “On one hand, the development work of these sectors is very slow while on the other the authority has not yet hired a contractor to start the development work of Sector I-15 even after seven years,” he said and added the sector consisted of 5,560 plots and 8,000 flats. The CDA had fixed 54 percent quota in Sector I-15 for the general public, 20 percent for the affected people of Islamabad, 10 percent for non-commissioned officers of Pakistan Army, 10 percent for the employees of the federal government from BPS-1 to BPS-15, five percent for CDA employees and one percent for journalists working in the twin cities.
He said the authority had launched Sector I-14 for the affected people of the federal capital, but to date the CDA had failed to complete its development, due to which contractors in different sectors were facing many problems. The inordinate delay in the development work would further intensity shortage of units and result in increase of house rents in the metropolis, they added.
Owing to the current housing problems, people with monthly incomes of around Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 find it hard to get affordable accommodation in the capital. However, they added a small number of flats or quarters were available on rent in the some sectors with living conditions very deplorable.
He said Islamabad was currently facing a shortage of 40,000 housing units, which had inflated real estate prices in the city. The existing number of houses was 80,000, but 110,000 housing units were required while each year demand for housing rose by 5,000 units, he added.