KARACHI: City Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Wednesday announced that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was making its development, land, assets and financial records available online as part of a drive to improve transparency and public access to information.

At a press conference at the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation headquarters, the mayor said citizens should not have to approach government officers or sift through files to find out what is happening in the city.

“Whenever anyone wants to know what is happening in Karachi, they should not have to depend on any officer or file. The information should be available online,” he said.

The mayor said new sections had been added to the KMC website, where citizens can access information about KMC properties and assets, development projects, the Karachi Development Map (KDM) and the Land Record Management System.

Wahab says details of 733 uplift projects costing around Rs59bn also available on KMC website

He said details of 733 development projects, with a combined estimated cost of around Rs59 billion, are now available online. The information includes the cost of individual projects, allocated budgets, expenditure, contractors and funding sources.

The mayor said the KDM would allow citizens to see the location of ongoing projects and details of roads being constructed in different parts of the city. By clicking on a project, people would be able to check its cost, sanctioned amount, expenditure, current status and expected completion timeline.

He said photographs and videos showing the progress of development schemes would also be uploaded, allowing citizens to monitor projects without visiting the sites.

The mayor said KMC was also digitising its old land records, some of which date back decades and even centuries. The move would help preserve the records and protect them from being lost or altered, he added.

According to him, future property transfers would also be recorded through the digital system, reducing human intervention and delays caused by the movement of physical files.

He said KMC’s employee records had been transferred to the SAP system, a software programme that institutions use to manage all their core operations on a single centralised platform, to improve transparency and prevent fraudulent or duplicate payments.

The corporation was also introducing an electronic, account-to-account payment system so that every payment made from its account could be properly recorded, he added.

The KMC’s revenue and receivables would also be linked to a digital system in the coming months, he said, adding that this would provide an accurate record of money received by the corporation.

He claimed that digitalisation had already improved revenue collection in some departments. “Monthly collections that had previously remained around Rs17-18 crore had increased, with one department collecting around Rs30 crore last month”, he said.

He said details of KMC land, shops, bus terminals and other assets were also being opened to the public. The system was still being improved and further details, including allotment records, would be added.

He said the initiative was not aimed at targeting any individual or institution but at creating a system where citizens could directly check how public assets and money were being used.

“Instead of making claims about development, facts should be presented before the public,” he said, adding that transparency and digitalisation would help strengthen public confidence in local government.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2026