LDA proposes to relax its land use rule, introduce a new category

LAHORE: In a seminar held for various stakeholders, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has announced relaxation in land-use rules by reducing commercial fee rates and introducing a new category.

Construction experts, town planners, architects, students and academia along with concerned officials were among the attendees to review the Land Use Rules 2019.

Discontinuing the existing annual commercialisation scheme by 2024, the LDA also informed the gathering about the proposal to reduce commercialisation fee to 15% rather than 20%. The authority also proposed to introduce a new semi-commercial category in revised land-use rules that will enhance commercial and business activity and decided to support commercial and miscellaneous purpose projects. The initiative will also encourage mega commercial projects ranging between 24-Kanal and 200-Kanal.

Furthermore, instead of approving commercialisation on a single road, the LDA will prepare a classification, reclassification and re-development plan of the entire area.

The commercialisation fee for not-for-profit educational and health institutions in the jurisdiction will also be waived by the authority.

A complaint and grievance committee has been formed to resolve pending cases regarding commercialisation, however, cases of commercialisation on prohibited/frozen roads will be decided on by the authority.

The importance of vertical development and high-rise buildings in Lahore to save precious agriculture land was also highlighted by the authority.

A building plan of the first-ever 45-storey high-rise to be built in Johar Town’s Finance and Trade Centre (FTC) was also approved after the concerned departments issued no-objection certificates (NOCs). The building is set to feature a five-star hotel, commercial areas and a head office. The building will be built be on 44 kanals of land that had already been allocated for the project. The authority had accorded approval after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Environment Department, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) and the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency issued NOCs.

New regulations have been drafted that focus on encouraging construction of high-rise buildings with special attention to safety, fire-fighting, rescue, parking and other amenities.

The authority will also focus work on other formalities that include traffic impact, assessment, structure stability certificate, structure drawing and plan vetting reports, extra height charges, car parking agreement.

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