ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s administration has decided to revise the city’s master plan for the first time and bring it in line with contemporary requirements, reported a local media outlet.
The capital’s civic plan had originally been prepared by a Greek firm called Doxiadis in 1960. The firm had suggested that the plan should be revised every 20 years.
Since then, only “selected” changed have been made to the plan and some changes have been put in place to allegedly benefit those with political connections. A change in the plan which included permission to build a housing scheme in Zone IV was allegedly done in order to benefit people that already owned vast amounts of lands in the area.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) board will meet today to take up a summary pertaining to the matter.
“The board will decide about hiring the consultant and after its approval, the consultant will start the process of proposing changes to the master plan, ” said CDA Planning Member Asad Mehboob Kayani.
Kayani also said that the consultant will propose changes after speaking with environmental specialists and then the CDA will send the proposed changes to the federal cabinet for approval. “The entire exercise could take two years,” added the member planning.
The CDA had previously attempted to revise Islamabad Capital Territory’s (ICT) master plan in 1986 and 2005 but had failed to get approval from the respective federal cabinets.
Other selected changes to the plan that have been made in the past include converting I-15 and I-16 from industrial sectors to residential areas in 1992 and converting I-8 from a transport services centre into a residential sector.
