KARACHI, Oct 29: A few days after collapse of a 72-inch-dia pipeline near the PIDC House, a 54-inch-dia sewerage line caved in the same vicinity, near Metropole Hotel, on Sunday, creating a wide crater and causing hindrance in the flow of vehicular traffic on all the roads leading to the city’s prime thoroughfare, Sharea Faisal.

The 72-inch-dia sewer had sunk on Wednesday creating a similar situation on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, causing traffic mess on many roads in the area and inundating several of them, including different sections of M. A. Jinnah Road, Shahrah-i-Iraq, Shahrah-i-Liaquat and Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, besides Aiwan-i-Sadr Road where the Governor’s House is located. Sewage had also flooded the arteries leading to the CM’s Houses.

An official of the KWSB said that the 72-inch-dia sewerage line had been repaired on Sunday. About the fresh incident, he said work on the repair of the 54-inch-dia sewer had been started, adding that it would be completed within 24 hours.

Asked about the reasons for the collapse of the major sewerage lines in a quick succession, the KWSB zonal chief engineer, Najam-e-Alam Siddiqui, said that as a matter of fact both the sewers had already out-lived their life. He pointed out that the lines had been laid some 50 years back and their replacement with a new one had become due.

Contrary to the claims by KWSB officials about the restoration of the 72-inch-dia line, residents of the old city, the most-affected area, complained of manholes still oozing sewage and flooding different localities.

Residents of Ramswami, Kharadar and Mithadar made calls to the newspaper office to complain that the stagnant filthy water had been drained out from major roads but remained unattended in the link roads and streets.

They said that unhygienic conditions and stinking atmosphere still prevailed in their neighbourhoods.

Owing to the stagnant water, flow of traffic on various roads had been affected and traffic jams were occurring, they said, adding that neither the KWSB staff nor the traffic police personnel had been paying attention to the dual problem.

They appealed to the authorities concerned to take urgent measures for the removal of filthy water and mud from the streets to restore a hygienic atmosphere and prevent a possible outbreak of mosquito-borne diseases.