E-Construction Portal Linked to Punjab Government’s e-Biz System, Says Local Government Minister

By Muhammad Shahzad
Lahore, Pakistan
LAHORE — Punjab Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique has announced that the e-Construction Portal has been fully integrated with the Punjab government’s e-Biz system, enabling the entire approval process for housing societies to be conducted online.
Presiding over a meeting at the Civil Secretariat, the minister said the scope of the Punjab Spatial Planning Authority (PSPA) is being expanded to all districts of the province. He stated that the central PSPA system has been linked with the district-level dashboards, allowing applications to be processed digitally once all required conditions are fulfilled.
The meeting was attended by Special Secretary Local Government Arshad Baig, Additional Secretary Quratul Ain, while Director General PSPA briefed participants on the authority’s modern Planning Support System (PSS) software.
Zeeshan Rafique said the PSPA has been mandated to complete all approval processes within 40 days for each application. “Unnecessary delays in approvals for commercial, residential, and industrial construction will be eliminated,” he said, adding that the authority would implement Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s vision of organized and regulated construction.
The minister said the PSPA was established to prevent unplanned urban expansion and the destruction of green areas. He noted that the Local Government Department has completed master planning for all districts, with every area now being monitored using GPS-based systems.
Rafique said the government would encourage vertical development by promoting multi-storey buildings instead of horizontal expansion. He added that industrial zones would also be brought under the authority’s management in the next phase.
He directed the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) to further enhance the portal’s features, stating that the Maryam Nawaz government’s reforms are focused on improving public service delivery. He confirmed that the e-Construction Portal has also been linked with the Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) to ensure transparency and verification.
The minister stressed that preventing illegal construction would be a key priority going forward, while regularization of existing illegal schemes was also essential. “We must make citizens’ investments in the real estate sector 100 percent safe. The PSPA has been assigned clear targets to achieve this goal,” he said.