LAHORE - Lahore Development Authority has changed its decision of reconstructing top three floors of LDA Plaza, situated on Edgerton Road.
The floors, which were demolished after a fire erupted two years ago, will not be constructed now as per the decision, official sources told The Nation.
Another reason behind this change is that the government has amended building rules, under which no high rise building could be constructed in the area and its surroundings due to security concerns.
Now the LDA plaza will permanently be reduced to six floors instead of nine, after a few changes in its design, said the sources.
The reconstruction was pending for last three years as other partner companies of the plaza were reluctant to pay their share for reconstruction. They took plea that those damaged floors were in use and possession of LDA.
According to LDA spokesman, the plaza was constructed in public private partnership and besides LDA, a number of government, semi government and private companies including Punjab Small Industries, private banks and an insurance company contributed their due share in the construction of the plaza.
“Now that other owner companies and banks are ready to pay their share for reconstruction of the demolished upper floors, we have estimated more than Rs400 million for renovation and restoration of remaining six floors of the plaza,” said the spokesman.
Although the LDA authorities had allocated about Rs100m as its share for the reconstruction of the building’s damaged portions after incident and then asked the other partner companies to allocate amount of their share for the purpose but initially they refused to pay which caused delay in starting construction work of the plaza, he added.
On May 9, 2013, a fire erupted in the 7th floor of LDA Plaza, apparently as a result of electricity short-circuiting which not only caused severe damaged to the building but also claimed lives of over two dozens of employees of LDA and other companies.
As a result of massive fire, three top floors of the plaza were left completely shattered and entire estate related record of LDA turned into ash. Later on, the LDA demolished the damaged floors.