KARACHI: Govt’s decision ends 30 years of uncertainty: Sports complex
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 13: The fate of the vast and extremely precious but haunted piece of land at the intersection of M. A. Jinnah Road and Garden Road no more hangs in the balance. Ending more than 30 years of uncertainty, the Sindh government has finally decided to develop a major complex with residential, commercial and sports facilities on the ideally located plot.
The project approved for the purpose provides for an air-conditioned domed hall to be built on a portion of the plot for indoor games. It will have a capacity of 5,000 spectators. The design of the hall, surrounded by many rooms to make it a sports complex of high standard, would also help beautify the area surrounding the site, which is a prime location of the mainly commercial district.
The Sindh cabinet, announcing its decision at its meeting a couple of days back, said it had approved a Qatari firm’s offer to develop the site as per the building plan. The firm has offered an investment of $150 million in the project.
The building plan shows 40 per cent of the 17,125-sqaure-yard land reserved for commercial units. On the remaining portion of the site there would be the sports complex having indoor games facilities and a 30-room hostel for sportsmen, and a parking lot sufficient for 3,000 vehicles, besides some other essential facilities.
The proposal of the project had been submitted for the provincial cabinet’s approval by the department of culture, tourism, sports and youth affairs along with the recommendations put forward by the Project Committee. The Project Committee, headed by chief secretary, had been constituted in 2002 by the then Governor Mohammadmian Soomro.
During the late ’70s, a contractor had carried out initial construction on the land and has a claim of Rs8.803 million. It is learnt that the Qatari firm would go for an out of court settlement of the claim.
Offers had been invited through newspaper advertisements from interested parties for the project. According to sources, 10 parties had submitted their offers which were examined and that of the Qatari firm appeared attractive to the government.
A letter of acceptance was issued on May 27, 2003 to the firm which had made presentations to the governor and chief minister on six occasions to explain its offer as well as the design of the project. The law department had also vetted a draft prepared and submitted by the firm.
In spite of progress towards awarding the contract, a decision by the Sindh government remained pending for one reason or the other until President Musharraf’s office took notice of the delay and directed the governor to expedite the process and ensure that an agreement was signed before the party withdrew its offer.
Giving details of the plan, sources said that the sports complex would comprise a library, a museum, a stadium for indoor games, game courts, boxing arena, wrestling arena, weight lifting and gymnastic halls, lecture halls, rooms for the offices of the Sindh Sports Board and a lobby for the provincial departments. This portion would be handed over to the provincial government after completion of the construction work without claiming the development cost.
In the commercial portion, there would be showrooms, shops, a shopping arcade, swimming pools and changing rooms, gallery, restaurant and food outlets, etc. There would be residential flats on the upper storeys and the cost of the entire project would be recovered from the proceeds of this portion.
The Qatari firm has undertaken to develop the library and museum in a way that would depict the history and culture of Sindh.
The site of the sports complex was owned by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) until it was transferred to the Sindh government in lieu of another plot, ST 8/A, Block 7, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, which will also be developed into a sports complex by the PSB.
