President of Model Town Society

The next edition of our Newsletter is with you. This time due to many reasons including national elections which got postponed, it got delayed for which I ask for an apology from the members. A lot of members inquired for the delay as they are of the view that at-least newsletter keeps you abreast with the happenings in Society.

A lot of development projects are under way. A beautiful fountain has been added at main round-about. A lot of residents specially rang up to appreciate it. The planning of Community Centre (Barat Ghar) has almost completed. The architect has submitted the plans. One of the best Consultant firm has been finalized and they are busy in its structural designing. Inshahallah we will lay its foundation stone in April. It’s a project worth about Rs 15 crores and will be one of the best Community Centre in the country. It will have three wedding halls, capacity of about 2000 guests at a time and the parking space of about 350 cars. It will have a good gym, a food court for the families etc. We invited two top Lady Event Managers of Lahore who gave very useful practical tips which have been incorporated. We advertised for the contractors and 13 leading companies have deposited their bids. The consultants and our sub Committee will finalize them within next 15 days.

The construction work on Makro shopping mall has started. They have deposited their plans which have been approved charging them about Rs 95 lacs as fee. They made few changes from the experience of Metro shopping centre at Thoker and have doubled the parking space. Now the building will be on pillars and whole ground will be utilized for parking of about 450 cars. Fourthly, the road in between Model Town Society & Q/R blocks which is although out side our town has been built with the support of Zila Nazim. We paid 20 % of the cost and 80 % was given by City District Govt. It has taken a lot of traffic load of our town as it is a short cut between Link road & Ferozpur road. All the block roads have been widened. A new gas pipe line is being laid these days to increase the pressure of gas. Three new tube wells have been added since last newsletter.

The sad incident of bomb blast in F block really shook the entire town. Our security guards were on spot within 5 mins. They pulled those two unfortunate young dead boys from the debris, called 1122 emergency vans and shifted their father, who was still alive, to hospital. He died later on in hospital. It was a very big shock and immediately an emergency meeting of MC was called the same night. A resolution was passed to console with all those residents who suffered loss of buildings etc. God has been very kind that all residents were saved from this havoc although many houses were damaged very badly. Following few important decisions were taken:-

Shifting of sensitive offices out of residential area immediately.
Giving notices to all offices and the members who are owners of the property to close down.

Increasing security of the town. Installing few more cameras at likely target areas, security gates at our central park entrances from two sides and buying 5 heavy motor cycles.
Closing down few more entrances even during day time. (There are 26 exit/entries in town out of which we close down 22 from 9 pm to 5 am. Four main entrances remain open at night. Now 3-4 more entrances will be closed down even during day time).
Giving Ad in leading newspaper informing members to either move these offices from town or their membership will be cancelled.

The discussions on intended power plant are still going on. It’s a very difficult project to finalize especially for a Cooperative Society with elected reps. The project plans to be on BOT basis for 10 years & an option to close down after 10 years. The land will be given on lease for which the company will pay us lease money. Our lawyers had marathon sessions with the company lawyers covering all aspects. Similarly our finance committee is busy in sorting out many minute details of cost, rise in prices, bank security etc. My thanks to Mr. Nur ul Huda, Ch Ikram, Mr Khalid Sajjad for guiding us in technical matters, Mr. Munir Bhatti for leading the lawyers’ team, and financial members for taxing their brains for removing all financial bugs. My thanks to Mr. Zanur also for coordinating all the sessions, discussions & constantly perusing its progress. If all goes well, we will sign a MOU with the company soon. The company will sell 100 % electricity to MTS at Rs 7.60 per unit on LNG, (the last bill of LESCO to MTS is charged at Rs 6.85 per unit). The society sells it to residents on subsidized rates. The last increase in tariff rates by WAPDA has not been added yet. We have calculated that the Society will be able to sell its members at about Rs 6.00/unit). LESCO will buy surplus electricity from us at about Rs 9.0/unit. We had two detailed sessions with Chairman LESCO (with the help of Zila Nazim), who have agreed to buy our surplus electricity and will remain stand bye for any eventuality, (a proper agreement will be signed between MTS & LESCO). I request all members to support us on this very important project as next 6-8 years are not projected well for availability of electricity in the country.

The next good news for the residents is that we finally got our Linear Park (72 acres) back from PHA. The orders were passed on the last day of previous Govt, again with a very active role played by Mian Amer. We took over the charge straight away and now a lot of development work is going on. The boundary fence towards Ferozpur road which was broken at 32 places is being replaced to stop intruders from Bhabbra, Naseerabad etc. Soon we will also put nominal entry ticket to stop unauthorized boys playing cricket in flower beds and on pathway. Inshahallah this will also turn into a best walking place. We plan to earn some money from it also to cover its expenditure.

The long vacant strip of K block lying vacant with full of debris from last 50 years has finally being developed. There are almost 200 one kanal plots in this strip in our master plan. A proper 18 ft wide road, sewerage pipe, water pipe and electricity lines will be laid, all underground. A proper consultant firm has been hired through open newspaper competition who then selected contractors in another open competition. All this has taken about one year to finalize. Once completed, MTS can allot these plots by balloting or by open auction, to be decided later on by MC/General body.
It is hoped that there will not be any shortage of water during summers. Last phase of old water pipes are being replaced. A SDO is going to be hired by the Society soon. We have given an Ad for getting an experienced person. It’s the need of the time to have a qualified SDO to head this very important department.

In the end I request all members to kindly do not rent out your houses to various companies, offices etc for commercial activities. Model Town is a residential locality and let it remain a good housing scheme. Managing Committee has decided to take a strict action against those members who rent out their house to offices and move out of the town. The life of the neighbors become miserable and we intend to cancel few membership. It’s a very serious issue and we will allow it turned it to be another Samanabad.