Low-cost housing: Body formed to identify land for PM’s scheme

The chief secretary will be the convener of the committee. Senior members of the Board of Revenue, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department, the Planning and Development chairman, a Colonies member and the housing secretary will be part of the committee.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had declared the provision of housing facilities a priority and said that the government would provide 500,000 housing units in the next five years to address the problem of inadequate housing.

The Ministry of Housing and Works gave a presentation to the prime minister in this regard.

PM’s Plans

Nawaz Sharif had told the ministry to ask provincial governments to identify suitable tracts of state land in planned areas to develop low-cost housing projects. He had also announced that the pilot housing projects would begin in the provincial capitals.

The Ministry of Housing and Works had also constituted a working group, headed by the federal law secretary, to examine the legal aspects of the housing sector in the country.

The ministry, in a letter, had asked the Punjab chief minister to fast-track the matter. A Performance Delivery Unit was established at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to monitor and review the progress of the project.

On November 27, the chief minister told the chief secretary to direct regional commissioners and district coordination officers to identify suitable tracts of state land within urban areas for the construction of high rise buildings for the project.

On November 30, the Chief Minister’s Secretariat constituted a high-level committee to expedite the work.

The committee has been given the mandate to ensure the identification of suitable sites and to ensure that no suitable land is left out.

The committee was also directed to select the most appropriate sites from the ones suggested and furnish the chief minister a list for approval.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2013.