KARACHI, Feb 11: On completion, the Lyari Expressway will become the property of the city government which will have control over the income generated by the road project.

This was disclosed by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan at a press conference on Monday where he announced a resettlement package for the people who are being removed from the path of the much- talked-about expressway.

The 16.5-kilometre-long expressway is expected to be finished in 36 months at a cost of Rs5 billion.

Accompanied by District Coordination Officer Shafiqur Rehman Paracha, Mr Khan told newsmen that the expressway project was a gift of the federal government for Karachi.

However, Mr Paracha said the city government would spend Rs3 billion on the rehabilitation project, bearing the cost of land owned by the city government and the board of revenue.

“The city government will have all the rights over the expressway project, including the collection of toll tax,” he said.

He reiterated that the Lyari Expressway project, initiated before the present government, was being financed by the federal government.

“The National Highway Authority is the project executing agency.”

He declared that his government was ready to rehabilitate all those who had been residing in the alignment area of the expressway regardless of their legal status on humanitarian grounds.

He, however, made it clear that those industrial or commercial concerns which did not have leased plots would not be considered for compensation.

“The process of shifting of families removed from the path of the Lyari Expressway has already started and will depend on the pace at which the project is executed.”

Though any final design and alignment plan of the project had not yet been received from the authorities, it was expected that about 14,000 families, living on the two sides along the Lyari river, would be affected due to the execution of the project, he added.

“The affected families will be resettled at three different sites with modern town planning facilities in Hawkesbay, Baldia Town and Taiser Town, Malir.”

He added that in all 1,463 acres of land had been allocated at the three sites where 80-square-yard plots would be developed which would be given to all the affected families.

“Three pieces of land measuring 165 acres, 1,148 acres and 150 acres have been selected in Hawkesbay, Baldia Town and Taiser Town respectively, where work on water supply lines, sewerages and electricity supply has begun.”

In addition to land entitlement documents, each affected family would be presented Rs50,000 in cash for rehabilitation when they had moved to the new place, the city Nazim announced.

Mr Khan said there was no difference of opinion among town Nazims over the Lyari Expressway project.

The city Nazim said that to ensure the availability of the infrastructure at the rehabilitated areas a committee comprising senior officers had been constituted which had been entrusted with the task of preparing the PC-1 of all the three sites within a week, adds APP.