KARACHI, Jan 28: The Nazim Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, said here on Monday a master plan ordinance would be issued first before the preparation of Karachi Master Plan and all the institutions would be bound down to go by the master plan.

He said the draft of the ordinance was being prepared, and it would be announced soon.

He said this while speaking as chief guest at a seminar on “Development schemes and their completion in time and within the allocated budget,” held in Gallery Sadequain under the aegis of fortnightly Engineering Review and the Karachi city government.

Mr Khan pointed out that so far five master plans had been prepared for Karachi - two during the British days and three after the creation of Pakistan. But all of these remained unimplemented.

He said even after the establishment of the Karachi city government, there existed a number of organizations which had a claim on the lands of this city and they had to be told which land belonged to whom.

The Nazim said one reason for development projects suffering delays in the past had been the existence of so many organizations in the city having their land control. He said there should be a coordinated liaison between them, so there should be a coordination committee for the purpose.

He informed the seminar that there was no digital map of Karachi, which was an essential requirement.

The Nazim declared that the master plan, to be prepared now, would be implemented practically and all organizations would follow it. He said this would speed up the pace of work on development schemes and help in their completion on schedule.

He emphasized that development projects must be completed on time and within the allocated budget.

Other speakers called for a database for Karachi, and suggested that before the launch of a project, a meeting of all the organizations concerned be held and the work initiated after finalizing all relevant issues on one table so that no problem was encountered subsequently.

The speakers said the present system was better in the sense that all organizations had now come under the control of the city Nazim which would facilitate coordination between them.—APP