KARACHI, Sept 7: In a meeting here on Wednesday, it was decided to take immediate steps for removal of impediments in the construction of the road from Saddar Dawakhana to Mazar-i-Quaid.

The meeting was chaired by Adviser to the Chief Minister on Local Government Waseem Akhtar and attended by Home Minister Rauf Siddiqi, Secretary Local Government Ishaq Lashari, Special Secretary Housing Ghulam Arif, DCO Fazlur Rehman, EDO Works and Services Sarfraz Shah, Project Director of Lines Area and city government officials.

It also decided that effort would be made to ensure that minimum possible number of people were affected by the road construction and that the city government would give up the plan for development of commercial strip on both sides of the road in the greater public interest.

The participants noted that construction of this road was highly imperative. However, it should be constructed with a minimum possible loss and by taking the people of the area into confidence.

As per the existing plan, some 1,309 houses will be affected and if the proposed commercial strip is done away with, the number of affected houses will come down, making it easy to manage alternative arrangements for them.

The meeting decided to set up a committee comprising representatives of the area and CDGK officials to carry out a survey within 20 days and submit the report before further steps were taken in this regard.

Waseem Akhtar told participants of the meeting that while construction of this road was very important, the government wanted initiation of development projects without causing trouble to citizens and also suffering a minimum loss.—APP