An upward trend in construction of residential facilities in Pakistan is noticeable in view of acute housing shortage. The government is taking various concrete steps to tackle the situation of price hike in lands and provide cost effective houses to low income groups.
According to Federal Minister for Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah housing backlog in the country touches five million to six million. While the available housing accommodation facility for the Federal government employees stands at 22,000 units against 3,86,000 government employees.
Elaborating measures for the solution of housing issue especially for the low paid government employees in Federal Capital, the Minister said initiative for the construction of low cost houses has been taken.
About 10,000 to 15,000 housing units for the low paid government employees (from Grade-1 to Grade-16) will be constructed on ownership basis formula to help resolve their residential problem, he added.
He said public-private cooperation is being sought to encourage a new trend for the construction of multi-storey buildings. Certain modalities like location of land, cost and calculation is being sorted out in collaboration with Capital Development Authority.
CIIC, a component of seven-member Chinese construction companies, is also keen to undertake construction of this project. The minister informed that in future all the flats would be made horizontal to give finer look to capital.
While senior federal government employees would also be facilitated with the residential accommodation. Officials from Grade-17 to G-19 will get flats with covered area of 1,800 sqf while officials in Grade-20 to Grade-22 would be eligible for houses with covered area of 2,500 sqf. Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) has been tasked to launch development work in sectors G-14, G-15 and F-12 respectively.
The Phase-IV Housing Scheme was launched in sectors G- 14/1,2,3 and G-15/3,4 and about 6,678 plots of different sizes are included in this scheme. The Phase-V Housing Scheme (Sub-sectors G-11/3,4) is a pilot project consisting of 1,000 apartments of three different categories which have been allotted through balloting.
The construction work of these apartments is in progress and expected to be completed by the end of this year. While Phase-VI Housing Scheme will be launched in F-12 to which Prime Minister has already accorded approval.
On a parallel scheme, the government has started construction of houses for low income groups in all the major cities of the country.
In this phase, work on the construction of about 308 housing units for government employees in Grade 1 to 16 has been started in Karachi and it would be started soon in Lahore. While its periphery will be extended to other two provincial capitals as well. The government is also working upon "Land Bank" project under which affordable land would be available for development.
Moreover, to streamline the process further "Land Acquisition Formula" has been changed while the development of F/12 sector in Islamabad is expected to shift the trend. Ministry of Housing and Works is also trying to bring latest technology with all-bracing research work to address the issue. According to last Advisory Board meeting of the Ministry of Housing, in Pakistan no viable research work has ever been done so far in housing sector.
Only 44 institutes related to building research are doing their scattered work and their fruits seldom reach to masses. It suggested that the construction of residential units should be on incremental basis to meet the socio-economic needs of the people and with this new boom, about 72 allied industries are expected to develop.
It identified that provision of loans on easy terms by banks can enable the low paid group to overcome their financial crunches in finding residential places.
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