As many as 137 housing schemes were operating illegally in Hyderabad but the builders and developers of some 43 of them have so far fulfilled formalities to secure the official approvals while the rest are still unauthorised. The Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, which held a hearing in Karachi on Thursday, directed Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) to take action against all those 94 schemes.
The PAC’s chairman Nisar Ahmed Khuhro also expressed dismay over delay in collection of around Rs2.5 billion dues from the builders. He asked the HDA’s Director General Asghar Ali Ghangro to immediately issue notices for payment of the dues failing which the authority should seal offices of the delinquent builders.
Khuhro told Ghangro not to show any leniency. Ghangro briefed the PAC that around 137 schemes were allotting plots and built up properties without securing the necessary approvals. However, some 43 builders and sponsors after meeting the requirements regularised their projects. A majority of the housing schemes in Hyderabad launch booking of the plots and built-up residential units without securing water supply and drainage NOCs. Although, water is mostly made available to such schemes, the drainage from such projects often ends up in the rivers, canals and distributaries.
A good number of new housing projects are fast replacing the once agricultural fields along Hyderabad bypass road. But these schemes also lack connectivity with the city’s drainage network.
