LAHORE: After the completion of a rainwater harvesting project at Lawrence Road, the governing body of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has approved two new similar projects worth Rs 240 million for the city which will store collectively 2.7 million gallons of rainwater.

In this connection a meeting of the governing body was held here on Wednesday and it was chaired by LDA Vice Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Imran. The meeting was attended by MPAs Sadia Sohail Rana (from Lahore) and Muhammad Atif (from Nankana Sahib), Wasa Vice Chairman Imtiaz Mehmood, Major (R) Syed Burhan Ali, Engineer Amir Riaz Qureshi, Wasa Managing Director Syed Zahid Aziz, and senior officials. On the occasion, LDA Director General Ahmed Aziz Tarar briefed the participants on the status of implementation of the decisions of the previous meeting.

The rainwater harvesting systems will be installed at Bismillah Park in Tajpura, and outside Sheeranwala Gate on Circular Road with a capacity of 1.2 million gallons and 1.5 million gallons, respectively. The LDA intends to lunch eight more similar projects in various parts of the city.

To control air pollution in the city, the meeting also approved the tree plantation at 24 spots reserved in LDA's housing schemes for which the LDA had allocated Rs 150 million in its annual budget.

The governing body also gave its consent for developing software, which will systematically combine all information relating to plots in the LDA housing schemes, including ownership record, area and location, property record and showing status whether a building under-construction is following building bylaws.

Moreover, revision of PC-1 of the Firdous Market Underpass project was also approved. Due to the increase in compensation for land acquired for the construction, the PC-1 had to be revised. However, the meeting was told that the overall cost of the project will not exceed the projects overall cost.

The meeting also decided to refund the excess amount of dues paid by the people to the LDA and subsequently it directed the LDA Director-General to prepare SOPs for the refunds.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020