KARACHI: The boundary walls built around the construction site of the Karachi Nuclear Power Project-II (Kanupp-II) as well as the gates and traffic diversions have been causing confusion to Paradise Point visitors, it emerged on Monday.

“While traffic is being diverted to the newly laid out roads from where unlike past the sea can’t be viewed now, there is also a gate leading to the famous seaside picnic spot,” a worried picnicker informed Dawn. “The gate is usually open for the people to pass through, but if there is a gate, it has been put there to be closed sometime,” he added.

“We see the biggest crowds at Paradise Point on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I have never seen the gate closed. But then I am here only till Maghrib. Maybe it closes after sunset,” said Nazeer Ahmed at a refreshment shop at Paradise Point. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s Emergency Rescue Centre (ERC) head Mohammad Mairaj Khan, who is in charge of all the KMC lifeguards deployed in the area, said they, too, were experiencing a bit of confusion about the Kanupp gates.

“We find the gates open sometimes and closed at other times. At times we are allowed to go forward to carry out our beach watch duties and occasionally we are prevented from doing so. There are Chinese engineers working at the nuclear power plant and sometimes they, too, want to take a dip in the water. God forbid, if something untoward is to happen, Kanupp guards and military men patrolling the area aren’t really trained to save and pull out people from the water,” said the lifeguard.

“Of course, Kanupp is an important installation. If they want to close this area for the public they are certainly entitled to do so but we would appreciate some official notification regarding the matter so that we also stop people from going further and don’t deploy our lifeguards at Paradise Point,” he added.

When Dawn called Kanupp-II Project Director Azfar Minhaj, he said that it was only the second gate at the diversion leading up to Paradise Point that was causing confusion. “It’s an old gate, which we may remove now,” he added.

The project director said: “After the new gates closed the old road near the seaside for project construction, we created a diversion along with a new road to keep not just the picnic spot open for visitors but also have a way open for PNS Himalaya and the fishing villages up ahead. It’s a public road. We can’t even think of closing that route.”

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2014