KARACHI is growing at an annual rate of over five per cent. Around 250,000 people or nearly 50,000 households are added to this metropolis every year. Facilities and civic infrastructures required for a mega city like Karachi are moving at a snail’s pace. The main problem of the city is related with the existing intra-city transportation system, which is under heavy strain. The chief contributing factor is the explosive growth of its population. Added to this is the ever-increasing number of people who visit the city daily, on a business trip or for a social call. These visitors also use city’s already overburdened transport. Over one million vehicles plying across the roads of Karachi at present constitute about 35 per cent of all vehicles in the country. It is estimated that the number of vehicles in Karachi are growing at a rate of over 12.5 per cent per annum.
This mega city has about 15,000 intra-city buses. In addition, it has over 500 inter-city buses as well. There are also about 15,000 taxis and 25,000 rickshaws, adding to the misery of Karachiites. With the absence of a proper highway structure and a comprehensive mass transit system, one could imagine that what would become the life in Karachi in the years to come.
The problem has aggravated owing to apathy of the local/provincial administration and their refusal to deal with the problem in a big way. The reason given is the non-availability of funds. As a consequence, a city like Karachi with its 15 million population is probably the only city in the world which has minimum flyovers, no mass-transit system or bypass/exit expressways.
Along with these depressing aspects of Karachi’s historic growth, the city nevertheless presents an impressive look of a growing metropolis. As a national metropolis, Karachi should continue to grow, not as a city of Katchi Abadis, rough streets, and pushcarts, but as a city where people would love to live and feel proud in doing so. Karachi, which has developed into a economic, financial, trade and industrial hub of the country soon after independence, now requires a proper finance and trade zone away from the congested central city to meet challenges of the 21st century.
Lyari Expressway is an explosive idea conceived about a decade ago to meet the requirements of the growing traffic problems. The construction of expressways in conjunction with an effective mass transit system in the shape of a KCR-cum-underground-metro railway service would help reduce traffic congestion in this central city. In a mega city if we do not find ways to improve civic amenities, very soon lives of the Karachiites will burst under the fast increasing population growth. For the last 30 years or so the idea of a mass transit scheme for Karachi is under study. During this period, Karachi witnessed extraordinary growth in population and traffic. We have to sit together to find ways and means for an improvised Karachi for our grandchildren.
If Karachi is to evolve into a well-managed and progressive metropolis, following immediate projects are needed to be undertaken on a war footing to meet the requirements of 21st century:
* An expressway or a tunnel through the city centre without disrupting the normal city traffic, like the exit way of Avinguda de la Meridiana, Barcelona, Spain, and the traffic exit tunnels of Marseilles / Toulon in France and other European cities.
* A circular motorway around the central part of the city for an easy access to the interiors of the city. For example, periphery/circular highways of Paris (Boulevard Peripherique), Barcelona (Cinturo de Ronda) and Rome (Grande Raccordo Anulare). Paris Peripherique is the best because it passes just around the central city supported by tunnels and flyovers. Romans were probably late as the Grande Raccordo is constructed outside the city suburbs, some Northern Bypass sort of thing. Although it is useful to bypass heavy traffic, but a circular motorway just outside the central congested part of the city like the Peripherique of Paris may help in avoiding unwanted city traffic from the inner city narrow roads.
* Bypass roads at the outer limits of the city for heavy traffic.
* Flyovers and underpasses at various junctions in the city centre for smooth flow of traffic.
* An underground railway system in conjunction with a circular and exit railway service.
* A well-organized and controlled intra-city bus transit system.
* A modern solid and waste management system.
* An effective sewerage system.
* A proper supply system of potable water.
* Reliable power and natural gas supply systems.
* A widespread trade and finance area away from the congested city centre and yet close to city population for easy access, to cater to domestic and international trade requirements. For example, La Defense trade and finance area of Paris and Manhattan of New York.
KARACHI is growing at an annual rate of over five per cent. Around 250,000 people or nearly 50,000 households are added to this metropolis every year. Facilities and civic infrastructures required for a mega city like Karachi are moving at a snail’s pace. The main problem of the city is related with the existing intra-city transportation system, which is under heavy strain. The chief contributing factor is the explosive growth of its population. Added to this is the ever-increasing number of people who visit the city daily, on a business trip or for a social call. These visitors also use city’s already overburdened transport. Over one million vehicles plying across the roads of Karachi at present constitute about 35 per cent of all vehicles in the country. It is estimated that the number of vehicles in Karachi are growing at a rate of over 12.5 per cent per annum.
