KARACHI, Dec 20: The absence of a master plan for Karachi is one of the important reasons for uncontrolled and irregular growth of the city which has resulted in other problems such as poor transport and other civic facilities.

The Nazim Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, has announced that a new master plan for the city will be drawn up soon, but it will take at least two years for upgrading the last master plan prepared to meet the current needs.

The last master plan for the city was the Karachi Development Plan 2000, which was prepared by the KDA with financial assistance from UN agencies. It envisaged a total cost of more than Rs460 million.

If implemented, it was to be applicable up to the year 2010.

Ironically, not a single meeting of its ratification committee, headed by the chief minister during the early ‘90s, was ever held.

This plan covered only the urban area of Karachi spread over 700 square miles. It had been completed in 1991.

It was a non-traditional type of master plan involving extensive updating of database, computerized mathematical models, etc.

The last plan for Karachi covered policies and programmes in all sectors of development, including infrastructure, health and education.

Apart from routine city planning and micro-planning which is designing of localities and housing schemes, this plan also recommended an institutional setup for coordinated development and legal instruments.

According to sources, the Sindh government has decided to create a new master plan department for the Karachi City Government, with the responsibility for all macro and micro planning of the city, including the study of changing needs of infrastructure and basic development.

The new department will be formally created early next month and will mainly constitute all the officers and staff from the Master Plan and Town and Urban Planning Department of the KDA.

According to sources at the KDA, upgradation of the existing master plan will take at least two years and cost more than Rs20 million.

However, officials at the KDA’s Master Plan Department have proposed to make a short-term plan valid for about two years which can be prepared in six months. This strategy will provide an instant formula for the pattern of development in Karachi.

Out of five city plans made in Karac