KARACHI, Nov 7: The city government has expedited the work on 163-acre Gutter Baghicha to develop a modern park at the site to provide good environment in the old city area. It is likely that the work would be completed for the park’s inauguration by the end of this year.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf, on the eve of his presidential referendum, had announced that the old city area would be given a befitting park. In this regard, he had ordered development of the Gutter Baghicha land.

Gutter Baghicha, originally spread over 1,017 acres amenity land, has reduced to some 480 acres over the past years due to encroachment and separation of plots carved out of it. However, following a hue and cry from local population, measures were taken to save the remaining land of the amenity plot and the city government chalked out a plan to develop the land. It gave the work to four contractors to complete the work within six months.

Once sprawling sewage farm where, according to the Karachi Guide & Directory-1915, cereals, green fodder and vegetables used to be grown and sold to the garden department of the local municipality with a considerable profit, Gutter Baghicha until recently had all sorts of encroachments over its land.

Located near the city centre, the Gutter Baghicha land had virtually been allowed by successive city administrations to be encroached upon progressively and one could see katch abadis, marble workshops, industrial units raised all around the outer portions of the land while big portions deep inside its boundaries have scattered dumps of garbage.

Nisar Hussain Baloch of the NGOs’ Alliance told Dawn that youths of the area had now undertaken to grow a forest park on the remaining open land of the Baghicha.

He said the youths and women folk would join hands in carrying out plantation after Eid festivities were over. The forest park, he added, would be developed side by side the modern park. It would not only save the open space from being encroached upon, but would also improve the overall environment.

He further stated that the youths were planning the setting up of technical training centres where unemployed youths could be imparted job-oriented training. This would help contain the rising graph of unemployment in the area, on the one hand, and would help prevent the jobless youths inclined to crime from falling in the trap of criminal gangs, on the other.