CDA Plans a New "Blue Area" Along Islamabad Expressway — What It Means for the Capital's Property Market

Blue Area has served as Islamabad's main business district since the 1960s, a corridor along Jinnah Avenue where offices, banks, hotels, and retail rely on a steady flow of commuters into the city centre. Its success has also exposed limits, from parking pressure to scarce new space, which is why CDA's talk of a "second Blue Area" draws so much attention. For a full look at the original district's layout, landmarks, infrastructure, and market character, see our Blue Area profile.

This article covers CDA's new six-lane road along the eastern side of Islamabad Expressway from Faizabad to Gulberg Green, and the planned commercial strip that could one day become a Blue Area-style district. Since that strip has no published plan or pricing yet, the existing market remains the only real benchmark. Browsing current Blue Area inventory shows what established commercial space costs today, giving useful context for any future claims about the new corridor.

Islamabad's skyline has one obvious commercial spine: Blue Area, the roughly two-kilometre stretch of Jinnah Avenue that has anchored the capital's offices, banks and retail since the 1960s. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) now wants a second one — and it is being built alongside a busy commuter corridor rather than in the city centre.

Quick Answer

CDA has started construction on an 8.5-kilometre six-lane road replacing the deteriorated eastern service road of Islamabad Expressway, running from Faizabad to Gulberg Green. Alongside the road, CDA's planning wing intends to reserve a commercial strip for development into a Blue Area-type commercial district, with plot auctions expected to generate significant revenue for the authority.

The Project: What Is Actually Being Built

Construction has begun on a six-lane road built in place of the existing, badly deteriorated service road running along the eastern side of Islamabad Expressway. According to Dawn, the project covers 8.5 kilometres between Faizabad and Gulberg Green, and includes a flyover connecting the new road to the Expressway at Faizabad, along with an underpass at the junction of Lehtrar Road and Khanna Bridge.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi visited the site and directed CDA to fast-track the work, aiming to compress a schedule originally set at one year under the project's PC-I. A CDA engineer told Dawn the job could realistically be finished in around 150 working days if construction proceeds without major disruption. The contract was awarded to M/S Leimar, which bid 13 percent below the Rs6 billion Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) cost — a figure confirmed independently by an earlier Dawn report on CDA's tendering for the project. CDA's own project page, listed under Widening/Rehabilitation of Islamabad Expressway Service Road (East), documents the scope on the authority's official site.

Site clearance is under way: the road survey has been completed, utility services are being relocated, and roughly 200 graves along the alignment near Sohan graveyard are being shifted to accommodate the new carriageway, according to Dawn's coverage of the tendering process.

The Commercial Strip: A Second Blue Area?

The detail most relevant to investors and developers is what CDA plans to do alongside the road itself. Officials say the authority's planning wing will earmark a commercial strip running along the new road for development into a district resembling Blue Area — Islamabad's existing central business district, a roughly two-kilometre corridor of offices, retail and hospitality along Jinnah Avenue. CDA expects the eventual auction of plots in this new commercial zone to generate billions of rupees in revenue.

This is not the first time CDA has floated commercial development along this corridor. It is, however, the first time the plan has been tied to a fully-funded, under-construction road project with a compressed political timeline behind it — which changes the calculus for anyone assessing how quickly the area could actually come to market.

Why Location Matters Here

Islamabad Expressway is a 28-kilometre signal-free corridor running from Zero Point to Rawat on the N-5 National Highway, connecting Islamabad directly with Rawalpindi. The Faizabad-to-Gulberg Green stretch sits at its northern end, close to some of the twin cities' densest residential growth — including Bahria Town, Gulberg Greens and DHA Islamabad-Rawalpindi. A Graana.com area guide to Islamabad Expressway notes the corridor is expected to see further housing societies, commercial markets and shopping centres develop along its length as capacity expands.

That positioning is the core commercial logic behind CDA's plan: a Blue Area-style district here would sit within easy reach of a large and growing resident population on both sides of the Expressway, rather than depending purely on office commuters travelling into the city centre, as the original Blue Area does.

Faizabad-Gulberg Corridor vs. Original Blue Area

Parking pressure in the existing Blue Area is worth noting as context: the Express Tribune has reported on residents and businesses in the extended Blue Area protesting a newly imposed Rs100 parking charge, with critics arguing that commercial buildings there were allowed to operate without adequate parking provision from the outset. It is a useful reminder that CDA's planning execution on any new commercial district will matter as much as the location itself.

What This Means for Investors — With Caveats

It is too early to attach a specific return figure, rental yield or price-appreciation estimate to this project, and no credible source has published one. CDA has not yet released a master plan, plot sizes, pricing structure or auction timeline for the proposed commercial strip. Any figures circulating informally at this stage should be treated as speculation rather than fact.

What can be assessed, with the information available, are the structural factors that will determine whether this becomes a genuinely investable commercial district or remains a slow-moving plan for years:

• Connectivity delivery. The flyover at Faizabad and underpass at Khanna Bridge are central to making the corridor genuinely accessible; delays to these components would directly affect commercial viability.
• Surrounding residential demand. The corridor benefits from proximity to established and growing housing societies, which is a stronger long-term demand driver than transient office footfall alone.
• CDA execution track record. As with any CDA-led commercial scheme, the gap between announcement and functioning plots — including utility provision, road completion and legal transfer processes — has historically taken years on comparable projects.
• Parking and infrastructure planning. Given the issues now visible in the original Blue Area, prospective investors should watch whether CDA builds adequate parking and traffic management into the new zone from the start, rather than retrofitting it later.
• Auction transparency. Revenue expectations depend on how the eventual plot auction is structured and publicised; a well-run, transparent auction process tends to support long-term price stability more than a rushed one.

Buyers considering exposure to this corridor ahead of formal launch should treat it as an early-stage, higher-risk opportunity rather than a settled investment, and should verify any specific plot, project or pricing claim directly against CDA's official announcements before committing funds.

The Wider Picture: CDA's Road-Building Push

This project sits inside a broader CDA push to upgrade Islamabad's road network. Dawn has reported separately that CDA received similarly discounted bids across five mega road projects in the same period, including the overhaul of Srinagar Highway, Murree Road and Jinnah Avenue itself. CDA has also outlined plans for three additional major road projects, including an underpass at Kashmir Chowk and the 11th Avenue corridor dividing sectors G-11 and G-12. Read together, these projects point to a capital administration prioritising both traffic decongestion and, where possible, new sources of commercial land revenue along improved routes.

What Readers Should Consider

For homeowners and investors already based along the corridor — in Gulberg Green, Bahria Town Phase 8, or nearby DHA sectors — the immediate, verifiable benefit is improved connectivity: separated local and through traffic, a new flyover link to the Expressway, and reduced congestion pressure on the main carriageway. The commercial-zone element is a longer-horizon proposition that depends on decisions CDA has not yet made public.

Anyone evaluating this corridor for investment should:

1. Wait for CDA's official notification of the commercial strip's boundaries and land-use classification before treating any plot as confirmed.
2. Track the road project's actual completion timeline against the stated 150-working-day target, since commercial land value along the corridor will likely track visible progress on the flyover and underpass.
3. Cross-check any pricing or "guaranteed return" claims from third parties against CDA's own tender and auction announcements, given the authority's history of phased and sometimes delayed rollouts on comparable schemes.

Final Verdict

CDA's plan to reserve a Blue Area-type commercial strip along the rebuilt Faizabad-Gulberg Green road is a credible, well-sourced initiative — the road contract, budget and construction timeline are independently confirmed — but the commercial-zone component itself remains at a conceptual stage. The corridor's underlying fundamentals, chiefly its Expressway access and adjacent residential growth, make the location logical for the CDA's ambitions. Whether it becomes a genuine second commercial hub for the capital, however, will depend on execution: on-time delivery of the flyover and underpass, a transparent land-use and auction process, and planning lessons learned from congestion problems in the original Blue Area.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is CDA building along Islamabad Expressway right now? An 8.5-kilometre six-lane road replacing the existing eastern service road between Faizabad and Gulberg Green, with a flyover at Faizabad and an underpass at Khanna Bridge/Lehtrar Road.

Is the "Blue Area-type" commercial zone confirmed and finalised? No. CDA's planning wing intends to earmark a commercial strip along the road for this purpose, but a master plan, plot sizes, pricing and auction schedule have not yet been made public.

When will the road project be completed? The PC-I timeline is one year, though CDA has been directed to fast-track it, and an engineer cited by Dawn suggested around 150 working days is achievable under accelerated construction.

Who is building the road, and what did it cost? The contract was awarded to M/S Leimar, which bid 13 percent below the Rs6 billion Notice Inviting Tender cost set by CDA.

Should I buy property now expecting the new commercial hub? Treat it as an early-stage opportunity. No verified pricing, ROI, or plot-availability information exists yet; base any decision on CDA's official announcements rather than informal claims.

Sources / References

Every link below was individually fetched and confirmed live and working before publication (verified August 4, 2026).

1. Dawn — Work on Islamabad Expressway extension project begins (published August 2, 2026)
2. Dawn — CDA receives below-estimate bids for five mega road projects (published July 15, 2026)
3. Dawn — CDA plans three major road projects in Islamabad (published March 5, 2026)
4. Capital Development Authority (official) — Widening/Rehabilitation of Islamabad Expressway Service Road (East), Faizabad to Gulberg (09KM)
5. The Express Tribune — Blue Area visitors protest parking charges (published May 18, 2026)
6. Graana.com — Area Guide: Islamabad Expressway
7. Wikipedia — Islamabad Expressway
8. Wikipedia — Blue Area, Islamabad