Controlling unplanned housing projects

The issue of unplanned housing projects needs to be thoroughly discussed on government levels and not just among the experts. The ever-expanding and haphazard network of housing projects is causing considerable shortage of agricultural land. Additionally, these unplanned housing projects are also leading to deforestation and destruction of other ‘green areas’ – which is counterproductive to the government’s clean and green campaign.

Another major issue, similar to that of the unplanned housing projects, is of the developers completing and selling illegal constructions. It is only later that the government and other relevant authorities realise the problem and then the public who have bought these constructions have to face the consequences.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has been urging for vertical expansion for preserving forests and agriculture land. However, we don’t need experts to inform us that we lack the proper facilities in order to sustain such infrastructure.

I believe we need a lot of development from scratch in order to promote and maintain high-rise housing projects. In the meantime, we need efforts of monitoring and establishing fool proof approval procedures for controlling these unplanned housing projects across the country.