Bidders to vie for 48 commercial plots in Capital on Tuesday

• CDA hopeful to earn billions in revenue through auctions of plots

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is set to hold a grand auction of commercial plots all over the city here on Tuesday.

The auction of commercial plots being organised by CDA will commence on Tuesday at Jinnah Convention Centre, Islamabad. The three-day auction would conclude on March 29.

After allegations of corruption propped up last time the auction was held, in order to ensure transparency this time, an 11 member committee headed by Member Finance Dr Fahad Haroon Aziz will supervise the auction proceedings.

During the three days auction, two commercial plots of Blue Area for construction of high-rise buildings will be presented for auction in addition to 22 plots for Class-III shopping centres. Out of these Class-III plots, two plots are located in Sector F-6, one in Sector F-8, two in Sector F-10 and two plots in Sector F-11. Besides that, one plot is located in Sector-G-10, three in Sector G-11, four in Sector D-12, one in Sector I-8, two plots in I-11, one in Shahzad Town and three in Sector I-14.

Similarly, seven commercial plots located in different localities, including two plots in Markaz D-12, two plots in Markaz I-8 and three commercial plots in Diplomatic Enclave, would also be presented for auction. During the three days auction, three plots for construction of apartments located in Markaz F-10, G-11/1 and G-11/3 would be auctioned during the auction.

Similarly, one hospital plot in Markaz G-11, one hotel plot in Markaz G-11, one filling station plot in Blue Area/F-7 and one petrol pump plot in G-8/1 Mauve Area would be presented for auction. Moreover, one commercial plot in community core Sector H-8/2, one commercial plot in H-11/4, two plots in Margalla Town Phase-II and two industrial plots in Sector I-10/3 are also in the list of plots which would be presented in the upcoming auction.

Talking to Pakistan Today, PR Deputy Director Malik Saleem said that the auction of commercial plots benefits all the parties involved. “It benefits the masses as they will get access to markets and commercial shopping centres, it benefits the business community and it benefits CDA as it generates revenue for the civic agency,” he said.

The capital’s foremost civic agency in order to function properly needs to generate a huge amount of funds to meet its multiple expenditures, pay salaries to its employees and officers and undertake massive maintenance and construction work all over the city. The federal government gives money to CDA under PSDP alone.

Presently, CDA generates its revenue from multiple sources including property tax, water tax, billboard tax, transfer fees from plots, and fees for map approval among others. However, the revenue generated through these sources is paltry and fails to meet the enormous needs of an organisation the size of CDA.

Thus in order to fill the gap, the CDA has to resort to the selling of commercial plots to generate a sizable chunk of its revenue.