KARACHI: Over 650 illegal shops and houses built on pavements and in streets were demolished on Saturday in and around Burnes Road, one of the city’s oldest neighbourhoods known for restaurants and eateries, as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation expanded its massive action of clearing the city of encroachments.

Officials said that unauthorised shops and houses were razed in as many as 10 streets in and around the locality, planned and built from 1935 to 1942.

They said that the streets were actually 60 to 70 feet wide, and they were reduced to only 20 to 30 feet.

The officials said that the shops and houses were raised on the footpaths and 20-feet portion of the streets.

Metropolitan Comm­issioner Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, who monitored the anti-encroachment ope­ration, told the media on the site that the residents had widely hailed the removal of encroachments in their locality.

One of the residents present on the occasion added that he had never thought of such an action against the encroachers and the area now wore an “unbelievable” look.

The metropolitan commissioner said that the anti-encroa­chment staff, equipped with heavy machinery and gear, did not face any resistance from any quarter during the six-hour long operation. “People fully cooperated with us as most of them razed the unauthorised structures themselves,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2018