January 09, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 29, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 8: A 10-kilometre-long main road, serving as a major thoroughfare of Lyari Town, has been in dilapidated condition for years.

The Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road, previously known as Atmaram Pretum Das Road, links Lyari with Saddar, Site and Keamari towns and houses a large number of big markets and bazaars along both its sides. It has developed countless cracks and potholes on its many sections. Motorists and pedestrians face great hardships while passing through it.

Apart from the trouble, they are left with a little space on the road due to a permanent encroachment, by vendors and wrongly parked vehicles. Even the footpaths along both sides of the road have been occupied by vendors and other encroachers.

The artery’s Kharadar-slaughter house section was dug up for the laying of a water pipeline several months ago and the trench, along with the earth dumped all along it, has been left unfilled since then.

Despite repeated protests by the residents of the localities falling along the Bhittai road, the city government and the Lyari Town administration are paying no attention to their calls for the completion of the work.

The Baghdadi Mohalla Committee has drawn the civic authorities’ attention towards worsening living conditions because of the abandoned work at the site, especially at its Moosa Lane section.It pointed out that the main drain dug up between the Lucky Arcade in Moosa Lane and the Janbai Maternity Home in Kharadar in 2001 was lying unattended till date.

The work on the laying of sewage lines in Moosa Lane was started a few months back but was abruptly stopped. Garbage and overflowing sewage has started accumulating on the main road running parallel to the project site due to which movement of vehicular traffic on this section of the road has become impossible.