KARACHI: In a move to ‘penalise’ the contractors who had built substandard roads that washed away in recent rains, the World Bank-funded Competitive and Liveable City of Karachi (CLICK) has decided to rebuild the roads through the same contractors without paying any amount, it emerged on Saturday.

The move came days after Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab took serious notice of poor quality repair works in different parts of the city which left major roads caved in, key thoroughfares riddled with potholes and sewers overflowing following rains.

In a letter to the CLICK project director, the focal person of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) highlighted “serious note” of the mayor over the post-rain situation seeking a “report within a week” and asking for all issues be “addressed accordingly”.

The mayor also expressed his shock over the performance of the consultant hired by the CLICK and attached a list of some 14 roads, which were improved under the multi-million rupees World Bank funding only during financial 2023-24. All the 14 roads were washed away in recent rains.

Mayor Wahab says ‘lab test’ made mandatory while use of Iranian asphalt banned to ensure quality of work

While chairing a meeting of the KMC engineering department, the mayor was informed about the progress of the corporation’s recent engagement with CLIKC.

In a brief conversation with Dawn, Mayor Wahab confirmed about the recent move of the CLICK.

“I have been informed that all those [14] roads which were built recently under CLICK programme and damaged during the recent rains would be repaired and rehabilitated by the same contractors without spending any money,” he said calling it a “good initiative”.

For the rehabilitation and repair of KMC roads for which Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah a couple of days ago had approved Rs1.5 billion, he said a new mechanism was put in place to ensure quality and effective performance of infrastructure.

“For instance, we will restrict all contractors and make it part of our deal that they will not use the Iranian asphalt while building roads like they did in the past,” he said.

“It’s low in quality and its sustainability always remains under question. The roads will be built from now on by asphalt produced by PARCO [Pak-Arab Refinery Limited]. Another thing is a lab test. The payment of any infrastructure built by contractors would be made only after that particular project passes a lab test. Every repaired or rehabilitated project will undergo a lab test.”

Earlier while chairing the meeting, the mayor issued directives to speed up road repair work across districts and asked the officials concerned to award contracts only to high-quality contractors.

“An immediate plan for implementation be put in place for repair and illuminate street lights on all KMC roads and underpasses,” a statement issued after the meeting quoted Barrister Wahab as saying.

“Currently the KMC’s top priority is road infrastructure improvement. There should be a zero tolerance for any further negligence or substandard work. All contracts must be awarded on merit, without exceptions.”

He was confident that the city administration within a year would improve its financial status to a large extent when along with funding of annual development programme, it would also start generating more than three billion rupees under collection of different taxes.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2024