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KARACHI, Oct 21: The Sindh government has allowed an influential construction company to construct a high-rise building in the city’s congested business district using more than double the normally allowed constructed space.
According to sources, the beneficiary is a joint venture company comprising an army subsidiary organisation, the National Logistics Corporation (NLC) and a UAE-based company, Enshaa.
The sources said that the Sindh chief minister has allowed the company to construct the Karachi Financial Tower – three levels basement (parking), ground and first floor (retail outlets), plus eight levels (parking), plus 5th to 37th upper floors (offices) – on I.I. Chundrigar Road, one of the busiest traffic arteries of the central business district of the city.
The sources said that the decision had been reached after a few meetings were held at the Chief Minister’s House on April 5, 2007, July 4, 2007 and other dates between Quartermaster General Lt-Gen Afzal Muzaffar, Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the chief secretary and the chief controller of buildings.
The sources said that the allowed plot size to covered area ratio – technically called FAR or floor area ratio – on this road is 1:6, but this company has been allowed a 1:12 ratio – double the normal permissible limit, which would simply translate in to more than double the profit for the beneficiary.
The sources said that in the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, I.I. Chundrigar Road is a notified ‘Interim Control Area,’ so declared “to prevent haphazard and unplanned development in areas lacking adequate: (a) water supply, sewerage, or drainage facilities; (b) utilities, electricity, gas, telephone; (c) health, educational or other municipal services or facilities; (d) road networks and public transport.”
The sources said that after getting the orders from the provincial chief executive, the Karachi Building Control Authority is working at break-neck speed in processing the plans, and though the company has not yet been allowed to start construction, it has been allowed to sell the spaces in the proposed building.
The sources claimed that the company has already paid approximately Rs200 million for the infrastructure betterment charges and would soon submit about Rs200 million more.
The architectural concept plan of the proposed concrete monster has been approved while the rest of the approvals are in the process and would soon be issued, said a KBCA source, adding that in fact this 12,950 square yard plot has been formed by joining two plots – 6,500 square yards and 6,450 square yards.
The joint venture company has obtained the plot, located opposite the Railway Stadium, across I.I. Chundrigar Road, on a 99-year lease for approximately Rs2.287 billion from the Pakistan Railways under an agreement signed by Railways Chairman Shakil Durrani and NLC Director-General Maj-Gen Khalid Zahir Akhtar on June 3, 2006, sources claimed.
‘Land is for public use’
The sources said that the plot had been carved out from a huge piece of Pakistan Railways land located along I.I. Chundrigar Road that was given to the Railways specifically for public-related use and could not be used for commercial purposes.
They said that if the Railways did not require the land then it should have returned it to the Sindh government, its original owner, and that the Railways had no moral or ethical right to sell the land and earn a huge profit by changing its land-use.
They said that the NLC was established to perform a specific task of moving cargo and indulging in commercial activities like the construction business was not its job. They said it should concentrate on its task rather than encroaching on other areas.
Breaking point
Currently the land is an open space but when the huge building is constructed and inhabited, it would put an enormous pressure on the already stretched-to-the-brink fragile civic infrastructure comprising the sewerage system, water supply, electricity supply and any additional load on this infrastructure would lead to its collapse, said sources.
They added that if one organization was allowed relaxation in the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations then the builders’ mafia would become active and the authorities would offer such favours – at a price of course – to other builders and citizens of the city would continue to see degradation in the quality of life.
Sources said that the deal should be called off and the land should be returned to the Railways, and since it seems that the Railways does not require the land, it should be returned to the Sindh government, which could use it for public benefit, rather than for the benefit of a few organizations.
