ISLAMABAD: The fate of the Geo-Spatial Technology Wing of Capital Development Authority (CDA) is likely to be decided at a meeting of the authority on Wednesday (today).
The wing was established by the planning wing in 2022 as part of a two-year initiative, and its main duties were to work on facilities with a focus on automation, digitization, and e-governance of the organization’s business processes.
Documents from the CDA state that the main goals of the initiative were to improve the IT infrastructure and bring in qualified personnel by creating the wing.
“A unified web-based platform would be developed with consideration for the potential needs of the CDA, integrating high-resolution satellite imagery and a GIS database to facilitate the organization’s transition from an e-governance to a g-governance model.”
Geographical Technology Wing was established in 2022 as part of a two-year project.
The project director had been planning as a former member. The member Technology and Digitization assumed administrative leadership of the wing in November of last year, but no new director was named.
Additionally, three cars were purchased for the wing, of which one is being used at the moment.
According to sources, town planners felt the project was essential for solving planning concerns, thus they wanted to keep it in place.
They will beg that the project should not be completed in the meeting that is scheduled for this Wednesday, with the CDA chairman in the chair.
Proponents of the project argue that it should stay under the planning wing because it is technical in nature and cannot be handled by the digitization and technology side.
According to a CDA official, “the technology wing should be part of the planning wing because it has no knowledge of handling work of town planners, surveyors, and other technical staff.”
He said that using remote sensing and GIS technologies will be beneficial to the project and be a significant step toward the transition from e-governance to g-governance.
Suparco will get aerial images of designated areas and high-resolution satellite imagery of 0.5/0.3 meters on a quarterly basis, in accordance with the requirements of the CDA.
The photos will be used to map the land cover categorization in Islamabad, among other things.
Another officer, who is in favor of finishing the project, stated that the wing’s work could be outsourced to a third party for a significantly lower cost.
“We can get such work done through contract instead of spending millions of rupees on scanners and other equipment and paying salaries to dozens of staff, including their perk and privileges,” he said, adding that organizations were now relying on outsourcing to save money rather than opening new branches.
According to the official, the project was scheduled to conclude in June of this year, having completed its two-year duration, as per its PC-I.
But he added that the CDA chairman will hear both sides and make a judgment that would serve the CDA’s interests, not those of the two wings, before making a final decision on the topic on Wednesday (today).
