KARACHI, July 26: As many as 1,720 shopkeepers of Khwaja Shahabuddin and Umer Farooq markets situated behind Empress Market in Saddar will be moved to temporary sites at Lines Area.

The decision has been taken to facilitate the work on the city government’s proposed commercial parking plaza behind Empress Market. After the completion of the project, these shopkeepers will be allotted space in the same area, it is learnt.

The city nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, had taken the decision for the construction of the modern parking plaza keeping in view the traffic congestion around the Empress Market.

According to sources in the city government, the process of shifting of tenants will begin in the first week of August. In the first phase, out of 1,720 shops, 679 tenants will be shifted to temporary sites at Lines Area and the remaining tenants will be shifted in the second phase.

These shopkeepers would be provided necessary basic facilities at the temporary site where work was in progress and likely to be completed by the first week of August, it was added.

Earlier, the officials of the city government, Saddar Town and the representatives of the tenants held several meetings to discuss the shifting process and availability of facilities to be provided to the shopkeepers at the parking plaza site and other issues.

It was decided that necessary utilities and facilities would be provided to those affected by the project in question, keeping in view the environmental situation at the commercial parking plaza and at temporary site at the Lines Area and all the shopkeepers would be accommodated according to the actual/allocated sizes of shops in the lower part of the proposed commercial parking plaza.

However, the construction cost would be recovered from them as was already decided and all the process of allocations at the temporary site and as well as in the commercial parking plaza would be done through balloting.

All necessary arrangements regarding the issuance of intimation letters, shifting slips and size of the alternative sites would be completed by the end of July. Before shifting to temporary sites, the shopkeepers would be required to pay all the outstanding dues of the city government, added the CDGK sources.