KARACHI: Japan offers construction of steel flyovers
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Nov 30: The city government has decided to lay a network of flyovers, numbering over 25, at all important and busy traffic intersections as they are urgently required to help resolve the city's ever-growing traffic jams and congestion problems.
This was stated by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan while talking to a Japanese delegation which called on him at his office on Tuesday in connection with its proposal of fabricating and constructing steel flyovers in the city.
Sources in the CDGK said that the Japanese delegation's proposal of fabricating and construction steel flyovers at the city's major and busy traffic intersections might be arranged by the federal government through soft loans from Japanese government and if the federal government decides to take up this project for Karachi it will go a long way in solving the traffic problem of the metropolis having a population of over 14 million.
The Japanese delegation, headed by Shinji Asai, included representatives from Japan's leading steel companies and trading houses. The delegation informed the nazim that the technology of steel flyovers was already being used in Japan.
Highlighting the salient features of steel flyovers, the delegation members said that it could be installed without disturbing the road traffic in a shortest possible time.
Besides, since the fabrication work of steel flyovers would be undertaken in the city it would help provide job opportunities to Pakistanis, he added. The delegation said that Japan was keen to invest in Karachi and if the project of steel flyovers was undertaken in the city it would further strengthen cooperation between Pakistan and Japan.
The nazim informed the delegation that the city government would initiate the project of constructing two flyovers at Hassan Square and Sohrab Goth during the current fiscal year while a third one proposed to be built at Quaidabad would be financed by the Steel Mills.
Underscoring the need for providing an alternative route to Quaid-i-Azam International Airport by constructing a flyover parallel to Sharea Faisal from the airport to Hotel Metropole, he said that the Sharae Faisal despite being a VVIP Road was the only thoroughfare leading to the airport.
Lauding Japan's desire of investing in the city's development, the nazim expressed hope that the friendly relations between both Pakistan and Japan would be further cemented with mutual cooperation in various fields.
The Japanese delegation is scheduled to have further negotiations regarding flyover projects with the federal government's relevant departments in a couple of days. Sources in the city government said that the Japanese delegation in its earlier visit to Karachi in September also had detailed discussions with the Executive District Officer Shoaib Siddiqui concerning the fabrication and construction of steel flyovers in the city.
Shortly afterwards, the city government had sent a list of steel flyovers, which were urgently required, to Sindh Planning and Development Department with concept clearance for its onward transmission to the federal government.
Meanwhile, sources in the city government said that the number of projects including steel flyovers and construction of the Mass Transit System's Cooridor No-1 (from Sohrab Goth to Mereweather Tower), would be discussed in threadbare at a high-level scheduled to be held in Islamabad in the first week of December with the planning commission's deputy chairman in the chair.
