KDA courts controversy with its public private partnership proposal

The Karachi Development Authority (KDA) has stirred up controversy with its proposal to invite private developers to build developments on land owned by it in the city, including several land parcels in prime locations.

The land parcels to be part of the scheme include:

• Around 1,900 square yards of land in KDA Scheme-1, which is very valuable due to Scheme-1’s affluent nature
• 28 acres of land adjacent to the KDA Officers Housing Society on Stadium Road which hosts many important institutions like Aga Khan Hospital and is prime land for commercial developments
• About 15 acres of land in the KDA Staff Colony in Block-U, North Nazimabad which is a sought-after location for residential housing
• Nearly four acres occupied by the KDA field office in Block-1 (ST-7 and ST-7A) of Federal B Area which is a congested middle-class area with considerable active traffic

KDA hopes to bring private developers to these lands to build residential, commercial and mixed-use developments. As per KDA, this will bring in much needed revenue the authority needs. However, many people including employees of KDA itself have raised questions about the scheme on why KDA is offering up its prime land to real estate developers. The lack of transparency of the proposed scheme has also been questioned.

Furthermore, questions have been raised on why the leadership of KDA is attempting to start these development projects with private developers when acres of its lands in the city are illegally occupied or encroached upon.

KDA says the proposal is in its early stages and will take at least a year or more to materialize. When asked on why KDA is not attempting to develop the land itself, KDA’s Director General Asif Jan Siddiqui said that KDA is under financial pressure, with several outstanding liabilities and other overheads such as pensions and salary expenses. This crisis has prevented KDA from launching its own schemes for the past decade. It needs to find a way to generate resources on its own.