KARACHI, Aug 2: Criticising the control of multiple civic agencies over Karachi, Nazim Mustafa Kamal stressed the need for single-body management of the municipal affairs of the city.

Speaking at the “Meet the Press” programme of the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, the nazim made it clear that the administration of any city in the world could not be run by 13 heads of civic agencies.

“The city government controls only 36 per cent of Karachi. But people are under the impression that the city nazim is responsible for the whole city. Karachi is the only city in the world where 13 agencies are responsible for civic issues. This city cannot be run by 13 bosses,” he said.

The nazim said the city government supplied water at source to the 13 agencies, which were also land-controlling authorities. It treated their sewage before it flowed into sea while all the garbage collected from these areas was dumped at the city government’s landfills, he said.

“The rules and regulations for installing billboards are entirely different in their areas. There are no hoardings on one side of M.A. Jinnah Road, which is in our jurisdiction. But the other side is full of huge hoardings,” he said, adding that the common man was suffering due to the control of multiple civic agencies.

Mr Kamal, however, made it clear that he did not want to deprive the 13 agencies of their land-controlling rights.

“As far as municipal services are concerned, there should be one controlling authority. Nobody before me raised the issue of unity of command, but I raised it just for the sake of millions of people of this city,” he added.

In response to a question, the nazim said that the first corridor of the Karachi Mass Transit Project (KMTP), from Sohrab Goth to Tower, had been approved, but there was a delay in the execution of the project due to the ownership issues of a 17-acre plot of land, which would be used as a marshalling yard.

“The prime minister has been approached for this issue and the groundbreaking will be performed after resolving the problem,” he said.

He also spoke about future plans including the introduction of 8,000 CNG buses, construction of Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) tracks, revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and various other measures being taken to resolve the transport problem in the metropolis.

He said that a state-of-the-art laboratory would start working from August 16 and the city government was planning to open three more laboratories near the entry points of the city.

Mr Kamal said that the city government was spending a sum of Rs17 billion on several water and sewerage related schemes.

“The work I have done during the last one and a half years can be compared with the work done in the last 59 years. But still, I am not satisfied. It is just a drop in the ocean and I have to do more because there are a number of problems which have to be dealt with,” he said.