KARACHI, Dec 10: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal has said that the road between airport and the SITE area would become signal-free by June next after which it would take 12-15 minutes, instead of one hour, to cover the distance between the two points.

Speaking at a reception hosted for him by the SITE Association here on Saturday, the nazim said that uplift of Karachi’s industrial zones was among the city government’s top priorities.

“All these zones have been included in the Tameer-i-Karachi Programme,” he said, adding that an amount of Rs200 million would be spent in each zone for infrastructure development.

Referring to development activities under way in the city, he made mention of flyovers at Karsaz, Time Medicos and Hasan Square; and underpasses at Gharibabad, Nazimabad and SITE, and said that all these were part of the access road between SITE and the airport. Work on these installations would be completed within a year, he added.

About disaster management, the city nazim said that a committee headed by the Sindh governor and adviser to the CM on local government had been formed to define the role of city government and other departments in this regard.

The CDGK has approved Rs600 million for purchasing machinery without awaiting recommendations of the committee, and the advertisements for the purpose had been placed in newspapers, he said.

He maintained that the city government did have the experts in disaster management who had taken part in rescue operation following collapse of Margalla Tower in Islamabad. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had called that team to Islamabad later and granted them promotion and one-month extra salary in appreciation.

Mr Kamal said that the number of such experts available with the CDGK was less than needed, but under a plan, such people would be made available to town administrations also.

He said that the city government had sought help from provincial, as well as federal, government for carrying out uplift projects. He said he would also welcome businessmen and industrialists coming forward in this regard.

He said the city government was trying its best to increase its revenues which stood at Rs60 million against the target of Rs2 billion. “Much of the revenues to into the pockets of unscrupulous people, but we will change this system now,” he added.

The city nazim said the development package for SITE Association would be announced within a week. However, the city government and the association would have to finalize a joint strategy for which a meeting would be convened soon.

Chairman of the SITE Association Mirza Ikhtiar Baig and Zubair Motiwala were among those present on the occasion.—PPI