KARACHI, July 12: A web-site containing information on buildings, protected under the Sindh Cultural Heritage Act, was launched on Friday.

The 9.6 MB site — comprising 98 dreamweaver pages, 653 files and over 600 images of notified historic buildings — has been developed after a nine-month work by the Heritage Foundation team. The web-site address is: “www.karavankarachi.com”

The foundation chief, Yasmin Lari, speaking on the inauguration of the website said the project evolved due to public interest generated by the KaravanKarachi Streetfests, that were organized by the foundation to stress the importance of historic city buildings.

She said the web-site provides images, information, and protected heritage numbers of all historic buildings and also provides history of major buildings along with detailed maps.

She said the easily navigable site relates the history of Karachi and its various historic quarters along with maps showing locations where these buildings are situated.

Further information, maps, images and activities related to major historic landmarks are also available through links with Karachi Heritage Guide web pages and KaravanKarachi activities pages.

She said for the first time the information about extraordinary resource of Karachi’s protected heritage has now become available worldwide and this treasure house could now be used by tourists, scholars and students alike and would help in spreading the historical attributes of Karachi at a global level.

Earlier, Mike Buck, chief of a multinational oil company Lasmo, which has sponsored the site, said that though the company was involved in hydrocarbon exploration it believed in working environment friendly way and maintained high level of environmental standards in its activities. It was also involved in various social welfare activities.

He said that the company has also adopted a 140,000 square- foot public park, situated next door to its head office, and was spending over Rs 5.5 million on its development. After which the park, alongwith the car parking space for over 100 vehicles, that has been carved out of the park, would be handed to the Clifton Cantonment Board.

He also gave details of some of the wildlife studies and surveys that the company had sponsored. He said that now company had sponsored this web-site and in a way was playing its part in creating and spreading awareness regarding the rich architectural heritage of the city. Later, he inaugurated the web site.