KARACHI, Aug 13: The administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has said that the construction work on the Shahabuddin Market and a five-storey car parking plaza in Saddar has been completed almost 50 per cent and the project will be available for business after completion of the rest of the work within the next six months.

KMC administrator Mohammad Hussain Syed expressed these views during a visit to the Shahabuddin Market on Monday.

Senior director transport and communication Mohammad Ather, project chief engineer Syed Mohammad Taha, superintending engineer Naved Azhar and other officers accompanied him during the visit.

The Karachi administrator said that the project was initiated while keeping in view the increasing number of vehicles running on roads and insufficient parking space available in the centre of the city.

“This project will not only solve the old problem of car parking in Saddar, but will also provide better business opportunities to existing and new shopkeepers of the Shahabuddin Market,” he said.

The project director informed the administrator about the progress on the construction work.

He said that the first phase of the project would be completed by the next month after which about 171 shopkeepers would be gradually shifted to the ground floor whereas 131 shops which had been constructed on the ground floor would be given to interested people chosen by ballot.

He further said that currently the construction of the multi-storey car park and shops was in the final phase and the project would be completed within the stipulated time.

The mezzanine floor of the building would have a total of 157 shops and about 12 to 18 foot-wide corridors.

The car park area would have the capacity for 600 vehicles and hundreds of motorcycles at a time. The vehicles will enter the parking plaza from Mensfield Street and exit on Daud Pota Road.

The old existing mosque adjacent to the Shahabuddin Market would also be reconstructed into a huge and beautiful mosque, said the Karachi administrator.

The phase-I of this project would cost Rs735 million, he said and added that the project should be made earthquake proof.

He expressed satisfaction over the construction work of the market and parking plaza and directed officials to carry on with the same pace of work so that the relocated shopkeepers of the Shahabuddin Market could be given possession of their shops at the earliest and they could start their businesses in the reconstructed building.—APP