Blog
CDA Plans a New "Blue Area" Along Islamabad Expressway — What It Means for the Capital's Property Market
By Bibi Masooma
Real Estate Analyst
9 min read
ShareWhatsApp
Blog
By Bibi Masooma
Real Estate Analyst
9 min read
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
| Factor | New Commercial Strip (Faizabad–Gulberg) | Existing Blue Area (Jinnah Avenue) |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Planned; road under construction, commercial zoning not yet finalised | Established CBD since the 1960s |
| Primary access | Islamabad Expressway, new flyover at Faizabad | Jinnah Avenue, central sector roads |
| Surrounding demand base | Fast-growing residential societies (Gulberg Greens, Bahria Town, DHA I/R) | Mixed office, diplomatic, institutional and retail catchment |
| Known constraints | Land use, master plan and pricing not yet disclosed | Parking capacity has become a documented issue |
| Investment stage | Pre-launch / speculative | Mature, high-value market |
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Every link below was individually fetched and confirmed live and working before publication (verified August 4, 2026).
Blue Area vs New Blue Area Islamabad: 2026 FBR valuation comparison, ROI, risk, and the definitive guide on where to invest along Jinnah Avenue.
Milkiyat.com has published a fully sourced, sector-by-sector investigation into the possession crisis across five CDA sectors — E-12 (37 years), I-12, C-14, C-15 and C-16 — built entirely on Dawn, The News, APP, and CDA’s own records, with every figure hyperlinked and single-source estimates flagged. Happy to offer it for citation or syndication.
With the RDA declaring 293 schemes illegal and the CDA sealing 99 more, the era of selling undeveloped land is over. From July 1, 2026, the Green Property Certificate has become the only valid proof of ownership. If you are holding a file for a plot that doesn’t physically exist, you need to read this breakdown of the new regulatory landscape.
A simple guide to Pakistan's new economic changes: how a $42B remittance surge and AI tax systems are lowering property taxes and making investments safer.