Daily Times

LAHORE: Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) continued an intensive crackdown against illegal buildings in areas under its administration on Friday as it partially demolished four illegal plazas inside Masti Gate along with the complete demolition of encroachments.

The operations against illegal constructions, especially plazas, were launched by WCLA during Ramazan. The operation team comprised of police personnel and the staff of building control department of WCLA.

In the recent crackdown, F-2164 (Malik Arshad Plaza in Kotwali Chowk), C-1873 (Plaza in Gulshan Street Masti Gate), C-1876 Plaza in Gulshan Street Masti Gate) and E-46 (Plaza Shah Almi Mor inside Shah Almi Gate) were partially demolished. Furthermore, four temporary encroachments were completely demolished which were located on the main drain line of Akbari Gate, Thara in Wacho Wali, Quarter 4 behind Tibbi Thana and Choori Bazaar.

According to details, over the past two weeks, 11 plazas have been partially demolished, while three permanent and four temporary encroachments in different parts of walled city Lahore have been demolished by the Building Control Department of WCLA. These operations were spearheaded by the Director Conservation and Deputy Director Building Control WCLA along with police force.

Director Conservation and Planning WCLA Najam Saquib said that as per the section 32 (2b) of WCLA ACT 2012, these operations were being carried out to erase the illegal constructions from the city. He said that WCLA would be starting demolition operations on daily basis from this week. He mentioned that these operations are giving an stern message to the plaza mafia and illegal property owners and more operations would make an impact in controlling the new illegal constructions.

“We are moving randomly to different parts of the city and are also prioritising the illegal constructions to be demolished. So far, we have been partially demolishing the plazas but now we will be moving forward to complete demolition of all the illegal plazas. We have listed the illegal constructions which are a threat to the neighbourhood and historic fabric and those are on our hit list,” he added.