KARACHI: Rs30bn being spent on 552 projects of city govt
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, June 4: The city government is currently spending over Rs30 billion on 552 development projects which include construction of 12 flyovers and interchanges, 80 roads, five underpasses, rehabilitation of infrastructure in four industrial areas and other major schemes relating to water, sewerage, solid-waste management and storm-water drainage system, well-placed sources told Dawn.
Another Rs7.5billion was being incurred on 290 different uplift schemes under the Annual Development Programme.
In addition, a Malaysian firm with which the city government of Karachi has singed an accord for constructing the city’s first elevated expressway from Jinnah bridge to Quaidabad on BOT basis at an estimated cost of over Rs24 billion, is nowadays giving final touches to the project’s study and work on this gigantic project is scheduled to begin in the first week of August.
Giving details of the mega projects currently underway in the city, the sources in the city government said though citizens might be facing difficulties in the wake of such a large number of development projects being carried out simultaneously, they would soon heave a sigh of relief upon their completion as most of the projects are expected to be completed in a short span of four to six months.
A senior official of the city government maintained that signal-free corridor from SITE to the airport, which would pass through Ibne Sina Road, Sir Shah Suleman Road, Stadium Road and Ibrahim Rahimtoola Road and Sharea Faisal, having four flyovers and three underpasses would be completed in the shortest possible time.
With the completion of this signal-free corridor in a record period of four months, motorists taking this route to and from the airport and SITE industrial area will not only save considerable time and fuel, but traffic congestion would also be minimised.
Asked about the logic behind initiating all the seven components of the signal-free corridor (four flyovers and three underpasses) in one go, the official said that whosoever criticise the city government for carrying out all these projects simultaneously should know that since all the seven components were part of the same project work on all of them have to be executed and accomplished simultaneously.
Suppose if we take these seven components of the project one by one, the motorists might get relief at one of the seven sites of the project whose work is completed but they will face similar problem at another site of the project because all these seven components of the project fall on the same route, he explained.
Moreover, if all these seven components of the signal-free corridor project were undertaken separately, the entire corridor would take at least three years to complete whereas the city government was striving hard to complete the project in four months, he added.
ROADS: The city government had also undertaken reconstruction, repair and carpeting of about 80 roads at a cost of Rs8.5 billion, sources said.
The roads are: Super Highway to Jinnah Terminal via Malir, Madinatul Hikmat to Super Highway, Clifton’s Scheme-5 (from Marine Drive to KPT), service road (from Bilawal House Chowrangi to Clifton’s Bilal Chowrangi), Shahrah-i-Attar
service and other roads of Clifton’s blocks 4 and 5, Manghopir Road (from Banaras to Pirabad), University Road (from Quaid’s mausoleum to Hassan Square), Lea Market Road (from Sheedi Village Road to Altaf Chowk), Keamari Town’s Road (Raees Goth, Hub Naddi to Maulana Mauladad Goth), M.A. Jinnah Road (from Marriot Road to Napier Road), Rashid Minhas Road (from Gulshan Chowrangi to Sohrab Goth), Mauripur Road (from Gulbai Railway crossing to PAF Masroor Base), Malir’s Kala Board to Saudabad Road, Allama Rasheed Turabi Road, Beach Park to Manzoor Colony’s Fire Station Road, Bantwa Nagar Road (from Sindhi Hotel to Bandhani Colony), New Karachi Road, all the surrounding roads of the city government’s secretariat, six internal roads of New Karachi, internal roads of North Karachi’s KBR Society, major and internal roads of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Korangi 16000 Road, 10 roads of Surjani Town, Korangi’s 8000 Road (from Jam Sadiq Bridge to Dawood Chowrangi), roads in Buffer Zone, Gadap Road (from Thaddo dam to Razi Gondar Goth), Abu Zehbi to Kathore Hashim Goth Road, Mehmoodabad Road, 5000 Road (from Surjani to Nagan Chowrangi), Garden Road (from Manghopir’s Kandawala Building to Baraboard), Baraboard to University Road via Sindhi Hotel; widening and construction of road (from Ibrahim Haidery to Korangi Fish Harbour, Phase-II), Police Training Centre 13-D Road, Korangi’s 12000 Road (from Korangi crossing to Dawood Chowrangi), Nagan Chowrangi to 7000 Road (Godhra) and carpeting of North Karachi Town’s roads, Rashid Minhas Road (from Askari petrol pump to NIPA), Shahrah-i-Orangi (from Caltex petrol pump, Torri Bangash Road, Amrohovi Colony), Business Recorder Road (from Gurumandir to Nazimabad Chowrangi), Siddiq Wajab Road (from Mirza Adam Khan Road to G. Allana Road), a link road from Madina Road to Quaid’s mausoleum, Shahrah-i-Jehangir (from Five-Star traffic intersection to Landikotal Chowk), Metroville Site Road (from Frontier More to Shell pump), Baldia Town’s 5-B Road, Lyari’s Mirza Adam Khan Road (from Jameela street to Faqeer Mohammad Durra Khan Road), North Karachi’s roads 2000, 3000 and 4000, Lyari’s Tannery Road, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai Road, Orangi’s road (from Boi Khan Hospital to Urdu Chowk), 6000, 13000, 15000 and 8000 roads of Landhi’s Sharafi Goth and Awan-i-Tijarat Road to I.I. Chundrigar Road.
KARACHI, June 4: The city government is currently spending over Rs30 billion on 552 development projects which include construction of 12 flyovers and interchanges, 80 roads, five underpasses, rehabilitation of infrastructure in four industrial areas and other major schemes relating to water, sewerage, solid-waste management and storm-water drainage system, well-placed sources told Dawn.
With the completion of this signal-free corridor in a record period of four months, motorists taking this route to and from the airport and SITE industrial area will not only save considerable time and fuel, but traffic congestion would also be minimised.
