• K-IV pipeline work seals off stretch between Nipa and Hassan Square till Dec 30
• Traffic police advise motorists to use Rashid Minhas Road via Aladdin Park

KARACHI: A new wave of road closures is set to cripple Karachi once again as after the much-delayed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line project turned major arteries into construction zones, the Karachi Water and Sewerage System Improvement Project (KWSSIP) is bringing fresh digging, roadblocks and traffic congestion to one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares — University Road.

“The closure is necessary for laying new 96-inch and 72-inch pipelines as part of the K-IV augmentation plan,” said a senior official. “This stretch, which is roughly 2.7 kilometres long, will form part of a new network that’s crucial for improving the city’s water supply.”

Digging work has already started on a section of the University Road between Nipa Chowrangi and The Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast).

The second phase will extend from Hasan Square to Nipa Chowrangi, according to project documents.

Officials have set Dec 30 as the deadline, but many remain “sceptical”, given the city’s track record of repeated delays and missed timelines.

Traffic police have suggested a diversion route via Aladdin Park, Rashid Minhas Road, to ease congestion, though officers admit that alternative roads are already under heavy pressure due to ongoing construction.

However, for hundreds of thousands of daily commuters, the Red Line’s construction has already brought endless congestion, dust and frustration to residents of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Gulistan-i-Johar and adjoining areas.

“It’s been years of digging and no relief,” said Abdul Maalik Atiqi, a commuter who travels daily from Gulshan-i-Iqbal to Saddar. “Now they’re closing another part of University Road. We’re trapped in a city that never stops breaking.”

“In Karachi, progress always begins with a roadblock,” said Nighat Tasneem, a daily user of University Road for her work at I. I. Chundrigar Road.

For city’s weary residents, the new closure marks yet another chapter in the city’s long saga of “development at the cost of daily life.”

Sources within the government organisations involved with the Red Line and K-IV projects admit that coordination between multiple agencies has been poor.

“This is true to a large extent — there’s a serious lack of a unified plan. One department digs up what the other has just restored,” said an official.

The K-IV Augmentation Project involves the construction of a bulk transmission and distribution system to supply an additional 260 million gallons per day of water to Karachi from the main K-IV line.

This project, funded and executed solely by the Sindh government, is a crucial supplementary initiative designed to connect the main K-IV filtration plants to Karachi’s existing water network. However, its University Road section is likely to create political fallout for the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government.

Opposition parties take PPP to task

The opposition parties have wasted no time criticising the Sindh government.

Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi chief Monem Zafar Khan lashed out, saying the city has turned into a maze of broken roads and failed projects.

“The PPP’s so-called development means endless suffering for Karachi’s citizens,” he said.

Similarly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders echoed similar frustration, accusing the provincial government of mismanagement and corruption.

“Every few months we hear new deadlines and new projects, but the result is the same — dust, traffic, and despair,” said Fauzia Siddiqi, the PTI spokesperson for the Karachi chapter.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2025