As many as 700 buildings across the provincial capital have been identified as unfit to live in. The Provincial disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has asked the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) to launch an operation to evacuate or demolish the dilapidated buildings.
This was revealed in a survey report conducted by the administration of nine towns of the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and the WCLA on the orders of the Punjab government authorities. The CDGL's constituent towns assigned a task to special squads to start inspection of dangerous buildings to vacate or demolish these with an aim to avoid any untoward incident in monsoon season.
According to statistics of the official report, 453 out of total 700 buildings were declared dangerous in the CDGL towns while more than 264 were identified in WCLA. Official sources told APP that the WCLA had nine wards within its jurisdiction where total 264 units had been found unfit to live in out of which 68 had been demolished by the WCLA during last year and the process still continued.
Executive District Officer Municipal Services Sardar Naseem told APP here on Sunday that administration of towns had main executing role and following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the CDGL Town Officers started issuing notices to owners of the buildings to vacate immediately before starting monsoon or demolish on their own expenses to avoid any loss to neighbouring people.
More than 200 buildings also have been recommended for necessary repair in the towns and the task will be completed after Eid. Such buildings that were not demolished by owners so far would be demolished by the CDGL and expenses would be collected from owners.
According to the officials of the City District Government, an operation against dangerous buildings has been started and these building would be evacuated or demolished as early as possible to avoid any danger.