KARACHI, Nov 14: City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal has stressed the imperative need for survey of all under-ground utility lines and making them part of the city’s Master Plan, maintaining that any exercise for master planning would be futile without such a survey.

He said only those Master Plan documents would be given legal cover which would be comprehensive and cohesive, identifying the city’s needs up to the year 2020.

He made these observations at a briefing given to him by the Engineering Consultant International Limited (ECIL), appointed for preparation of a Master Plan. EDO Master Plan Ateeq Baig, ECIL experts and other officials were present on the occasion.

The city nazim said that generally the city’s population was estimated to be at 18 million, and he himself believed that it was no less than 16 million, although the official statistics put it at even lower side.

He said that unless correct population figures, based on ground realities, were ascertained, any planning would prove flawed and the amount spent on it would go waste.

Therefore, he said, the ECIL should also carry out population survey, along with preparation of the Master Plan.

Mr Kamal stressed that the Master Plan must identify basic needs pertaining to housing, traffic, health, education, water, sewerage and other utilities.

“The existing Master Plan does not include underground services and, as such, it is useless.”

He said that while ascertaining the city’s needs up to 2020, a record of underground services should also be maintained in order to facilitate planning and overcome bottlenecks being faced in the initiation of development projects.

He called for an early meeting of utility service providers, town nazims, officials of the Karachi Master Plan Group and experts of the concerned firm to discuss all the specified issues.

The city nazim said that Master Plan should be prepared in such a way that people could able feel an improvement after its implementation. “Any plan which is found impossible to implement will not be provided legal protection,” he remarked.

He was of the view that the six-month period would not suffice for preparation of the Master Plan.

“We do not wish to merely install plaques… We will take only such actions which will be in citizens’ interests and will help in the city’s development.”

He directed the concerned officials to provide the ECIL a complete list of development projects to help the firm in its inspection process.—APP/PPI