CDA to construct four parking plazas; greenbelts along Kashmir Highway

Islamabad:      To address the growing parking problem around major shopping malls of the Islamabad, CDA is to construct four public parking plazas, CDA‘s Chairman Amir Ahmed Ali said. Similarly, massive tree plantation would be carried out on both sides of the Kashmir Highway where encroachments had been removed.

The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, headed by Senator Sitara Ayaz, asked the CDA to present a plan on how to implement the committee’s strategy about the future of slums in Islamabad. Similarly, the committee decided that a mapping of the capital city would be conducted to identify the need for plantation during monsoon.

The committee also directed CDA that greenbelts should be protected, as these guarantee the natural beauty of the capital city, to which CDA’s Chairman responded that though climate related issues come under the prerogative of Municipal Corporation of Islamabad, he is ready to cooperate in all aspects. The Chairman informed the committee that Islamabad has a total of 65 sectors, each comprised of 745 acres.

The committee also observed that palm trees that are planted everywhere in the capital are exotic and do not belong to the local climate; therefore, its plantation must be stopped and replaced with indigenous plants.