ISLAMABAD – The Capital Development Authority is likely to revive all stalled projects within two months as the change in payment schedule of the recently auctioned commercial plots would bring in Rs 2.8 billion to improve the financial health of the Authority.
The CDA has shortened the payment schedule for the last one year but despite that the Authority has received unprecedented the highest bids during the recent action of land.
This shows that the confidence of the bidders and general public is improving on CDA as the transparency in decision-making and good governance is being ensured by the current management headed by CDA Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz.
The second measure proved recuperative for the financially sick CDA was the strict policy to reject the bid offered below the reserved prices of Rs 275,000 per square yard. Following the same criteria, the CDA Board has rejected eight out of 20 bids.
According to the revised schedule, the CDA would get 25 per cent of total commercial plot’s price by Monday (72 hours of the bid) and rest within two months in two installments.
For residential plot, the bidders would pay 40 per cent of approved price by Monday and rest within six months period.
The CDA spokesman said the Board also rejected the bid of a commercial plot because the bidder had offered the price lower than that of its nearby plot, despite the bid being above the reserved price of the CDA.
He said that the shortening of payment plan would also help revive development activity in Blue Area as its development had been stuck up at Khyber Plaza despite that fact that city’s population has catapulted during the recent years.
He said that non-extension of the Blue Area and other commercial areas has encouraged the non-conforming use of residential buildings.
People have lauded the efforts of the CDA’s finance team led by Member Finance, Azhar Ali Chaudhry, for striving to steer the CDA out of financial crunch despite a slump in the real estate market.