CDA decides to revive abandoned culture complex project after 14 years.

ISLAMABAD -- The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to revive its abandoned and controversial Shakarparian Culture Complex project.

Worth Rs1.1 billion, the project was started during the tenure of former CDA chairman Kamran Lashari. It was abandoned in 2009 after spending Rs420 million when 28pc of work had been completed at the site.

'Alhamra of Islamabad [culture complex] started by Kamran Lashari in 2004. Work abandoned soon he left. Currently an excellent example of negligence and inefficiency. Restarting work and naming it Margalla Centre. God bless Pakistan,' CDA Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal tweeted on Thursday.

According to the PC-I, an auditorium, amphitheatre, piazza administration block, two cinemas, a conference hall, a seminar hall and a cafeteria along with a coffee shop were to be constructed on the 28.5 acres.

Work on building at Shakarparian was started in 2004 and abandoned in 2009

CDA officials said the inordinate delay of 14 years has already occurred and financial resources incurred on the project needed to be salvaged.

'The partially completed structure of the culture complex needs to be completed and utilised properly to safeguard public money spent on it, preferably realising the investment made in the structure thereon where ever possible,' read a document of the CDA prepared in 2017.

The document also said most of the building had been substantially completed except for the auditorium and amphitheatre.

CDA officials told Dawn that the unfinished building looked like a haunted structure and that the CDA never made any serious efforts to revive the project.

The project ran into controversy and...