ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to seek approval of the federal government for the development of the stalled Kuri Enclave Housing Scheme in partnership with the private sector.

`We are working on a summary to place it before the federal cabinet as we want to get this housing project developed through private firms,` said asenior officer of the CDA.

He said the scheme will be launched on 10,000 kanals and after getting approval from the cabinet the civic agency will call expression of interest (EOI).

Sources said that on Monday, which was a public holiday, some officers remained in contact with each other to get information about the project, as the CDA wanted to start the project as soon as possible.

When contacted, Nauman Khalid, CDA spokesperson who is also member technology and digitisation, told Dawn that last week the CDA board had discussed the issue and decided to refer it to the federal government.

`I am not privy to the summary for the federal government but yes in the board meeting last week we had discussedthe issue,` he said.

Meanwhile, sources said if allowed by the government the CDA will ask the private firm to develop the scheme. In return the CDA will share developed plots with it.

The sources said the CDA had acquired land for the development of the model village decades ago but after announcing the land award it took no serious step for its development. The model village was to be set up on 3,200 acres in Kuri, Majohan and Rehara revenue estates. The area falls in Zone IV. The CDA had possession of a large chunk of the land and recently had collected applications from the local people to clear their pending built-up property casestogetpossession of the reaming land from them.

It was decided that all the 2,700 affected people would begiven plots/cash compensation against their BuP claims.

In September last year, the IHC after vacating stay orders on the stalled model village project had given the go-ahead to the CDA to start the development work.

An official of CDA said that in 2008 the civic agency had made a package deal with the villagers under which the BuP award was announced in 2010.

However, some people challenged the BuP in 2013 in the IHC. He said that in 2016 the IHC while issuing a stay order had also stopped the CDA from any kind of allotment.

Similarly, he said, some other cases were also filed in the IHC.

However, a couple of months ago, the IHC vacated all the stay orders and directed the CDA to start the development work within a month.The official said all the three revenue estates of Kuri, Rehara and Majohan could provide thousands of housing units as it was equal to around four residential sectors of Islamabad.

One residential sector typically consists of 750 acres. The official said after paying compensation and built-up property claims, the civic agency will have around 2,000 acres worth billions of rupees. The CDA had acquired the land in 1968 while the BuP award was announced in 1971. The civic agency announced a controversial revised award in 2009 amid corruption and bogus entries of built-up property that resulted in court cases and inquiries.

But the civic agency did not take possession of the land by removing objections of the locals. Later, the FIA cleared around 2,700 BuP cases.