KARACHI: Mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Thursday said his administration was playing its part in enhancing the city’s development portfolio as the metropolis could not be left solely at the mercy of the Sindh government.

“We are uplifting various streets through re-carpeting and removal of enc­r­oa­chments through whatever meagre resources we have, because we stron­gly believe that Karachi cannot solely be left at the mercy of the Sindh government,” said Mr Akhtar while reviewing development work on the road from Liaquatabad No.10 to Teen Hatti.

He was accompanied by Rehan Hashmi, chairman of District Municipal Corporation, Karachi Central.

Mayor Akhtar said once the repair and re-carpeting of the streets was completed, full-scale drive would be launched to remove all encroachments on and along those streets.

“We are trying to allot certain places for vendors to earn their livelihoods,” he said.

He said like the KMC, other municipal bodies in the city were trying their best to improve civic services in their respective areas. Replying to a question, he said the Supreme Court had clearly ordered that the Solid Waste Mana­gement Board had failed to work in accordance with their objectives, thus, it should be handed back to the KMC.

“Let’s see when the Sindh government acts in line with the Supreme Court’s order,” said Mayor Akhtar.

He said citizens were facing a great deal of problems because of water shortages, power outages, deteriorated sewerage system, broken streets and faulty transport system, but they found no one to take care of these issues.

“Nothing has been done apart from destroying this city during the past eight years. The elected municipal leadership is not being given powers and funds, which is why the pace of development in the city is not as steady and fast as it should have been,” he said.

He said the citizens had elected them through overwhelming mandate and they were bound to spend all resources on the city and take every effort to modernise Karachi. The mayor inspected the material being used in the carpeting and asked the officials concerned and the contractor to ensure that quality material was used.

He said a smoothly carpeted road would help improve traffic flow from Liaquatabad No.10 to Teen Hatti.

Earlier, the mayor was given a briefing in which officials said some 200,000sq ft of the road were being carpeted at the estimated cost of Rs19 million. They said mechanical carpeting lasted long, which could bear traffic’s pressure for years.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2017