September 30, 2008	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 2008

KARACHI, Sept 29: The municipal administration of Lyari Town has imposed a ban on construction of multi-storey buildings in the limits of the town.

According to town officials, the issue of illegal construction of multi-storey buildings was raised at a recent meeting of the town council when a member pointed to the mushroom growth of buildings consisting of five to seven floors violating building laws and approval of authorities concerned.

The member also blamed building contractors for using substandard material in the construction work, saying that these buildings were highly dangerous from the point of view of security.

The council took up the issue seriously and subsequently decided to impose a ban on illegal constructions and decided that in future no construction work would be carried out in the town without the approval of the Karachi Building Control Authority and the town administration. It also warned that any violation of the law would be dealt with strictly.

A survey of the town shows that mushroom growth of high-rise buildings has created multiple problems like congestion, less air flow and sunrays for homes and streets dominated by multi-storey buildings, frequent traffic jams in narrow lanes, uncollected garbage and increasing crimes.

This old city area was not planned for growth as a modern city and cannot cater to the needs of an ever-burgeoning population without comprehensive planning geared to the future.

With the establishment of the Lyari Development Authority, it was expected that there would be further expansion in social services and improvement in civic amenities. However, owing to the phenomenal growth in the population and multi-storey buildings and lack of planning on the part of development agencies, social problems continue to multiply.

Housing problem

At present Lyari has become a problem-ridden locality, owing to housing shortage and other civic problems as those living here for decades have not shifted to some other areas, though availability of land has reached a saturation point.

Owing to cultural traditions, the locality has become congested over the years as people here prefer living a community life under a joint family system.

“Today a majority of houses have a maximum total space of 40 to 80 square yards and an average family consists of seven members,” the survey shows.

The housing shortage, however, gave rise to the mushroom growth of high-rise buildings causing a variety of problems to the residents.

In majority of cases, their spacious land was usurped by the builders. Thus, a large number of people started living in small houses in subhuman conditions.

Civic problems are multiplying day by day. An increase in population and an accompanying shortage of housing units have compounded the area people’s miseries.

Illegal activities of builders and developers who in a bid to raise multi-storey buildings have purchased houses in bulk caused the land prices to go up.

According to a survey of an NGO, an average family in Lyari comprises seven members.

Based on this assumption, the total number of families in the locality is estimated at around 230,000. Subsequently, the NGO has proposed launching of a new housing scheme exclusively for Lyari to cater to the housing needs of the people of the locality.