KARACHI: Nurseries on footpaths threat to pedestrians
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, Jan 22: Unlike various other main thoroughfares in the city, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, one of the few major, busy and wide arteries in the former district East, has unthinkably no pavements on its either side and pedestrians have no option but to walk along the road risking accidents amid heavy vehicular traffic, normally during working hours and till late in the evening.
Similarly, mushroom growth of nurseries along the footpaths of many other roads, including Sir Shah Mohammed Suleman Road, Stadium Road, Ibrahim Rahimtoola Road (commonly known as Karsaz Road) and the link road between National Stadium and Rashid Minhas Road, has eaten away a considerably large portion of the pavements. At some places, footpath has almost vanished.
In the particular case of Shaheed-i-Millat Road, the extremely essential footpath has being annexed by the owners of nurseries sprung up in a large number on both sides of the road with the patronage of the civic agencies’ officials.
The gradual annexation has been carried out so skillfully that one cannot even find a trace of it.
Nervous pedestrians, including women, children, senior citizens and special people, can be seen anytime trying to avoid a hit-and-run vehicle while walking along the road. Obviously, they would stop at some specific points along the road to board a bus, mini-bus, taxi, rickshaw, etc. for onward journey. Such a pause happens to be so risky for them and panic can easily be gauged from their faces as the traffic on this artery remains speedy most often.
People residing on either side of the road deplore that although a number of accidents, mostly involving pedestrians, have already taken place on the road, neither the officials of the defunct KMC nor the city government has ever moved to restore the footpath and ensure safety and security of the pedestrians.
The concerned citizens apprehend that footpaths of other main roads may also meet the same fate as that of Shaheed-i-Millat Road if the trend of leasing out footpaths to nurseries’ owners and operators continued unchecked.
“No doubt, nurseries along roads carry a pleasant and soothing effect for commuters, passersby and, of course, residents of the locality of this otherwise hilly track, but the concerned officials of civic agencies should not allow the owners of nurseries to grab footpaths which are meant exclusively for pedestrians,” they remarked.
According to sources, most of the nurseries, were owned either by the officials of Parks Department of the defunct KMC and district municipal corporations or their relatives.
Shaheed-i-Millat Road serves as a major link between Jail Road-University Road intersection and Sharea Faisal, as well as main Tariq Road, Bahadurabad, PECHS and various other cooperative housing societies like Bangalore Town, Mohammad Ali Society, Shabbirabad, Jinnah Society, etc. This is also strange to note that the several kilometre-log road has no designated bus stop.
“Now when the entire footpath of Mohammad Bin Qasim Road (formerly Burns Road) has vanished and most of the footpaths of the city’s main shopping centres have heavily been encroached upon, the trend of nurseries on footpaths is bound to play havoc with a number of pavements in the city,” the citizens warned.
