KARACHI: Water closure for three localities announced - Repair work at Banaras Chowk
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 3: Water supply to three towns - Orangi, Baldia and Site - will remain suspended for three days, starting from Saturday, to allow the authorities to undertake repair work of leaking pipelines passing beneath Banaras Chowk.
Water supply to the three towns, including Site's industrial area, will come to a halt at 8am on Saturday and will be restored on Tuesday morning. A decision to this effect was taken on Wednesday after City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, accompanied by DCO Mir Hussain Ali and senior officials of the CDGK and KWSB visited Banaras Chowk to inspect its upgradation work which was in progress since August 2002.
MNA Laeeq Ahmed Khan, MPA Hameedullah Khan, Site Town Nazim Ameer Nawab and the city Nazim's adviser for technical affairs Salim Azhar were also present. The city Nazim was informed that the Chowk's improvement plan which included carpeting of its adjoining roads and other beautification work was being delayed due to leaking pipelines passing through the Chowk.
Mr Naimatullah directed the KWSB officials to complete the repair work by Monday so that carpeting of the Chowk and its adjoining roads could be taken up shortly afterwards and accomplished within a fortnight.
Speaking on the occasion, the Nazim told the newsmen that the water closure had been necessitated to plug the pipelines' leakages so that the remaining work of the Chowk's improvement plan could be completed on time and the large number of motorists passing through the Banaras Chowk were provided relief.
With the completion of the Banaras Chowk upgradation plan not only the flow of traffic would improve considerably, all those residing in the Metroville and the sprawling townships of Orangi and Baldia would also benefit, he added.
When the Nazim's attention was drawn towards presence of heavy encroachments around the Banaras Chowk, he hoped that the Town Nazim concerned would be able to remove them.
Site Town Nazim Ameer Nawab, who was present on the occasion, declared that an anti-encroachment campaign would be launched from Friday and all sorts of encroachments creating hindrance in the smooth flow of traffic around Banaras Chowk would be removed.
SHAHRAH-I-ORANGI: Referring to the dilapidated condition of Shahrah-i-Orangi, Mr Naimatullah Khan said that with a view to bringing an end to the miseries of those using this important road, the city government had decided to construct the seven kilometre long Shahrah-i-Orangi at an estimated cost of Rs400 million through its own funds.
He said he would perform the ground-breaking ceremony of the Shahrah on March 5, while its proper inauguration ceremony would be held after awarding the contract of the road. Tenders of the project had already been floated and its contract would soon be awarded, he said.
PUMP HOUSE: The KWSB's deputy managing director (Technical Services), Suleman Chandio, told Dawn that during the closure being applied from the Hub source from Saturday, not only the work pertaining to plugging of leakages of the Banaras Chowk's pipelines' would be undertaken, the remaining technical work at the outlet and interconnection with the Hub pumping station's rising main would also be initiated.
With the completion of the technical work, the KWSB will be able to commission its new pump house at Hub in May, increasing the existing Hub pumping station's capacity of pumping water from 90 million gallons per day to over 100 mgd, he added.
