KARACHI, Jan 7: The Pakistan School Volunteers belonging to Karavan will clean the historic Wallace Bridge on I I Chundrigar Road on Sunday with the support of staff of Pakistan Railways who will also participate in the cleaning of bridge which is under PR control.

The 19th century Wallace Bridge is a historic landmark of the city. It represents the arrival of the railways and consequent prosperity to Karachi when large quantities of grain used to be brought from Punjab to Karachi by railway and made the city as the largest exporter of wheat in the whole British Empire.

The bridge is situated close to the 19th century historic City Station, which at one time was known as Mcleod Station and I I Chundrigar Road as Mcleod Road - named after John Macleod, Deputy Collector of Customs who served in Karachi during early 1850s.

The activity is being held under PSO-Karachi "Mera Pakistan" programme, which is organized every month to develop a sense of pride and foster a culture of sharing.

The programme activities were held in Karachi during 2001-2003 and throughout 2004 in several cities from Karachi Old Town to Lahore's Shahi Qila and Bahwalpur Palaces and Gwadar Port to Taxila world heritage site, focusing on various aspects of heritage protection.

The cleaning of the bridge, built of buff coloured sandstone, will be carried out as gently as possible with clean water and mild detergent suitable for historic structures.

After removal of layers of dust, scrubbing with bristle brushes will be done to remove the dirt, white wash or other paint. During the experimentation that was carried out earlier to determine the cleaning procedure, the removal of graffiti will be the greatest challenge.

It is hoped that after children volunteers have cleaned part of the bridge, Pakistan Railways will continue cleaning it, thus exposing the natural sandstone and revealing the beauty of the original bridge structure. The assembly of over 100 children will be addressed by Samina Pirzada. -APP