Daily Times

LAHORE: The Walled City of Lahore Authority’s (WCLA’s) Building Control Department is still waiting to receive funds to the tune of Rs 80 million from the Finance Department for the renovation of dangerous and dilapidated buildings in nine wards of the Walled City area, Daily Times has learnt.

It is pertinent to mention here that the sanctioned amount is not enough to repair 140 buildings that have been included in the list of dangerous buildings.

Such buildings are a serious threat to the people living in the area, especially during the monsoon season.

In last fiscal year (2016-17), the Finance Department halted funds to the tune of Rs 80 million that had been set aside for the Building Control Department of the WCLA. The authority had asked the department to release the funds in fiscal year 2017-18, but is has not been done so far despite passage of the provincial budget by the Punjab Assembly.

In the wake of monsoon season, the WCLA authorities have taken necessary action against damaged/dangerous buildings by issuing them notices to evacuate them for repair work.

According to the Building Control Department’s latest survey report, 60 more buildings have been identified and included in the dangerous building zone during a review in July. However, statistics of the report confirmed that the number of dangerous building was 385 in month of June, which was compiled by WCLA Building Control department.

According to July report, 182 buildings have identified for demolishing, 123 buildings decision are pending in committee and 140 buildings to be repaired out of 445 dangerous buildings. In June report, 178 buildings were identified which to be demolished, 131 to be repair and 118 cases were pending of dangerous building. The number of demolished and repaired buildings is same in the month of June and July reports, 43 and 45, respectively.

WCLA Conservation and Planning Director Najamus Saqib, exclusively talking to Daily Times, confirmed that funds had not been received yet and “we hope that the amount will be released very soon”. He further said that 50 buildings would be repaired with the amount of Rs 80 million, added that if funds were released without any issue, the number of dangerous buildings would decreased in the next few years.

He further said that we have started regular awareness campaigns for citizens of walled city to intimate them about dangerous buildings. In this connection, we have displayed banners to aware the public about the dangerous buildings in different important Chowks and entry points of walled city area. Further show cause notices were also issued to owners of the dangerous buildings along with notices pasted on the buildings wall. He told that around 23,000 small and big buildings are present in our 9 wards of Walled City. He told that both commercial and residential buildings are included in our dangerous building list. In a query, he said that not only old/ historical buildings came into the dangerous buildings zone rather newly constructed buildings can be declared dangerous.

Published in Daily Times, July 21^st, 2017.