RDA has approved a new hospital in Jhanda Chichi and plans to shift key facilities to Ring Road zones to ease congestion and improve health and urban services in Rawalpindi.
RDA Approves New Hospital for Jhanda Chichi
The Rawalpindi Development Authority has approved the construction of a new modern hospital in the Jhanda Chichi area, marking a major step towards improving healthcare access for residents of the city. The decision was taken during a key meeting chaired by RDA Director General Kinza Murtaza, where officials reviewed a wider plan to reorganise key urban services around the Ring Road corridor.
According to the RDA, the upcoming hospital is intended to reduce pressure on existing public and private healthcare facilities, many of which are already operating at or near capacity. The new facility will provide additional beds, emergency care and specialist services, allowing patients from surrounding neighbourhoods to receive treatment closer to home.
Reducing Pressure on Existing Healthcare Facilities
Director General Kinza Murtaza underlined that Rawalpindi’s growing population has created increasing strain on hospitals and clinics, often leading to long waiting times and overburdened emergency wards. She said the new hospital in Jhanda Chichi is part of a broader strategy to spread out health services and make them more accessible.
By adding a well-equipped hospital in this area, the RDA hopes to shorten travel times for patients, improve timely treatment in critical cases and ease the load on major institutions serving the city. The project is expected to feature modern medical equipment, improved patient facilities and better staffing capacity once completed.
Key Facilities to Shift Towards Ring Road Zones
Beyond healthcare, the same meeting also approved a plan to relocate several large facilities from densely populated parts of Rawalpindi to designated zones along the Ring Road. These include wholesale fruit and vegetable markets, transport terminals, selected educational institutions and industrial units.
RDA officials say this shift is aimed at easing traffic congestion, reducing air and noise pollution and lowering the overall urban load on central areas. Moving bulk markets and heavy transport hubs to the Ring Road corridor is expected to cut the number of heavy vehicles passing through inner-city roads, improving safety and travel time for ordinary commuters.
Planned Health and Education Zones on the Ring Road
To implement the new zoning strategy, the DG directed the Engineering Directorate, Metropolitan Planning and Traffic Engineering Directorate, Estate Management Directorate and Land Development Directorate to identify and allocate suitable sites along the Ring Road. These sites will host dedicated clusters for health, education, transport and industry.
RDA plans to set up dedicated health zones on the corridor, which will include hospitals, medical stores and diagnostic centres. The idea is to create well-planned areas where health services are grouped together with proper parking, access roads and utilities, rather than scattered randomly across congested neighbourhoods.
Similarly, major educational institutions will be encouraged or required to move to purpose-built campuses with improved infrastructure. These campuses are expected to offer better classroom facilities, sports grounds and transport access, while freeing up space in crowded residential and commercial districts.
Improving Mobility and Urban Planning for the Future
On the transport side, the DG said all major transport terminals will eventually be shifted to the starting and ending points of the Ring Road. This is intended to improve both inter-district and intra-city mobility by keeping large buses and cargo vehicles on the outer corridor rather than forcing them through the city centre.
Urban planners view the combined steps—building a new hospital, creating health zones, moving markets and relocating terminals—as part of a long-term effort to modernise Rawalpindi’s layout. If implemented as planned, the changes could improve quality of life for residents by providing better access to health and education, cleaner streets and more efficient traffic flows.
For now, the approval of the Jhanda Chichi hospital is the first visible piece of this broader strategy. As RDA moves from planning to execution, local communities will be watching closely to see how quickly the promised facilities materialise and how effectively they address the city’s long-standing urban challenges.
