KARACHI, March 21: The city government has decided to make the design of the Lyari Expressway project public so that the recommendations of the experts and the representatives of the people could be incorporated and the National Highway Authority could alter the map of the project accordingly.

This decision was disclosed by Karachi Nazim Naimatullah Khan after a meeting with the representatives of the Action Committee for Civic Problems as well as Karachi District Coordination Officer Shafiqur Rehman Paracha and a few town Nazims.

Mr Khan said a new design of the project had been approved by the Karachi City Government and the NHA. The new design would be made public in a couple of days.

The meeting decided that the survey procedure would be carried out under the supervision of the representatives of the people, army teams and officials of the city government. The lists of the affected people would be published and bulldozers would be used only after taking the affected people into confidence.

The meeting resolved that no property would be demolished without making alternative arrangements and cash payment to the affected families while in such cases where property was leased in the name of the affected people all legal formalities would be ensured and compensation would be paid.

The meeting decided that after Ashura a meeting would be held with the NHA which would be attended, apart from the city Nazim, by concerned Nazims, representatives of affected families and experts.

The Lyari Expressway project, initiated by the KMC in 1995, was designed to cater for the needs of heavy vehicular traffic generated for upcountry from the Karachi port and from the three adjoining industrial areas.

The government announced its decision last year to reinitiate the project on a priority basis. The project has been handed over to the NHA that has developed fresh plans for the project and the Frontier Works Organization has been selected as the contractor.

However, people living over the banks and the bed of the Lyari River are particularly perturbed by the project. The fact that for a limited number of heavy vehicles the NHA has decided to construct an extraordinarily wide three-lane each-side highway consuming more than 90 feet each side and has opted for 22 flyovers instead of underpasses below nine bridges and flyovers over only two originally planned is being resented by people.

Experts maintain that the NHA is unnecessarily opting for four interchanges for the expressway. They add there is no requirement for dislocation of people at Lasbela and Liaquatabad No 10.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Action Committee chairman Baseer Naved recalled the decisions of the meeting held with the Nazim.

Expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting, he said that in view of the assurances of the Nazim and decisions of the city government the Action Committee had decided to postpone its protest, scheduled for March 23, to April 2.

He said that they were not opposed to the project but were opposed to the way it was being implemented, affecting settlements as old as 200 years like Hasan Aulia Village, PIB Colony, an area in Liaquatabad where houses had been brought in alignment of the Expressway without any resettlement policy.