LAHORE - The district administration on Sunday demolished a five-storey plaza in Shah Alam Market as part of the clean and green drive in metropolis.

The anti-encroachment squad used heavy machinery to demolish the plaza, which had dozens of shops and retrieved the encroached land in one of the most important commercial hubs of the city.

Earlier, a delegation of traders met the deputy commissioner and insisted the plaza had been built as per rules, but the district administration showed them that according to the 1934 map of Shah Alam Market, the plaza was built illegally and the land was actually grabbed.

In another development in Shah Alam Market, an eight-storey plaza was also evacuated because it is located in the pathway of a street in Shah Alam Market. The district administration started demolishing the plaza on Sunday.

In another operation in Raiwind, Mouza Rangeen, 290 kanals of land worth Rs150 million were retrieved. A similar anti-encroachment drive is continuing in Gulberg Q-Market and in Firdous Market. The AC City lodged FIRs against shopkeepers in Shahdara for occupying the footpath.