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KARACHI, July 17: Representatives of community-based organizations and NGOs have criticized the National Highway Authority for not exhibiting the design of the proposed Lyari Expressway project to the public despite its earlier commitment.
They said they could not understand the reason for keeping a development plan secret where the government planned to demolish thousands of residential and commercial units.
“It is surprising to note that area people were neither taken into confidence at the planning stage nor at the execution stage,” they added.
A representative of the Lyari Rabita Council said that there would have been no controversy on the project if the project had been implemented by the City Government or the Sindh Government on the basis of the original plan.
According to him, the situation changed when the project was handed over to the NHA bypassing the City and Sindh governments.
The LHA representative, Javaid Memon, said the NHA had made a mess of things by taking hasty actions without taking people into confidence because it was not aware of the ground realities.
“A lot of confusion was created over the demarcation of land and then demolition operation was carried out in a hasty manner,” he said, adding that he failed to understand why a complete secrecy had been maintained over the publication of the design of a vital development.
The Baloch Rabita-Ittifaq Tehrik urged the government to direct the NHA authorities to clear the confusion over the design, otherwise the ongoing demolition would create a “horrible situation” and the NHA would be held responsible for it.
BRIT provincial chief Rauf Baloch said: “A crisis is already brewing due to the NHA’s hasty demolition plan.”
Adding, he said: “It is a serious issue which must be taken into consideration immediately by the Sindh and City governments.” He said a joint meeting of representatives of City, Towns the CBOs and NGOs be held to settle the issue
HE SAID: “A sheer use of force would in no way solve the problem, rather it would further complicate it.”
VISIT: A group of newsmen visited the Expressway site on Wednesday to see the after-effects of the recently carried out demolision operation.
A joint statement issued by the representatives of six NGOs — the Action Committee for Civic Problems, CREED, Hasan Aulia Village Welfare Society, Mianwali Colony Ittehad, Shershah Akbar Road Action Committee and the Urban Resource Center — claimed that over 400 housing units inhabited by over 6,000 people had been bulldozed on the directive of the NHA during the last two weeks to make way for the Lyari Expressway.
A survey by the Lyari Nadi Welfare Association (LNWA) shows there are 46 settlements located on both banks of the river and most of these settlements will be evicted if the proposed expressway is implemented.
The LNWA surveyed the river-bed in the beginning of 1995 and the results showed that 24,000 housing units are located on both sides of the river.
About 25 per cent of them are concrete structures and the rest are semi-concrete. About 90 per cent population has water connections whereas 80 per cent have electricity and 60 per cent have gas supplies.
“Despite all these facts, if the government is sincere in implementing this project, we will cooperate with the government in the greater interests of the city”, a CBO activist said provided “But it must ensure the marking of land required for the expressway with the minimum dislocation of housing units, and proper compensation and alternative housing should be given to the dislocated families within the reach of their job locations.”
