KARACHI, Jan 9: The ambitious plan to convert Gutter Baghicha into a national park seems to have hit snags as no ground work has yet been carried out despite the passage of nearly one year.

The plan was announced on April 28 last year by President Musharraf when he visited Karachi and expressed his determination to restore the glory of ‘the city of lights’.

Upgrading of Gutter Baghicha as national park was placed among the top priority projects and directives had promptly been issued to the concerned government agencies for its early execution.

Accordingly, in a hectic anti-encroachment drive, all the illegal structures, including hydrants, were removed from the project site for which a decision was taken after several high-level meetings.

However, the operation as well as the work was abruptly stopped on the directives by the former governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, apparently on the initiative of a delegation of industrialists. They delegation had called on the ex-governor and requested him to intervene and order suspension of the operation.

Though no reason has been assigned for the suspension of work on this vital project, the operation has not been resumed despite a lapse of more than a month.

Described by the President as ‘a gift to Karachiites’ the project is in doldrums and it seems as if the plan has been shelved.

There has been no mention of this project either in the official statements of federal, provincial or the city government which has created the impression that the President’s dream project has been sabotaged by the bureaucratic wranglings.

Authorities, during the anti-encroachment operation, had claimed that more than 50 illegal hydrants — the main source of water supply to the industrial units in the area — had been removed. With the suspension of the drive, all these hydrants have resumed their operations one after another. A survey of the area reveals that more illegal water connections have also added to their already long list.

These hydrants have always been held by the area residents responsible for an acute water shortage which is a chronic problem in Old Golimar, Pak Colony and the residential parts of Site Town.

People of the area pointed out that Pak Colony and Gutter Baghicha, where illegal water connections were laid underground, had been the main source of water supply to the industrial units.

They accused ‘water mafia’ of diverting the water from residential areas to industrial areas and chemical units in connivance with the local police and administration.

While these industrial units functioned round-the-clock without facing any shortage of water, the residents of the area were running from pillar to post for a small quantity of water for the last many years, they lamented.

A survey of the project site shows that the illegal hydrant business is still flourishing and unscrupulous people are busy in laying illegal water connections within the Gutter Baghicha without any fear of action.

This clearly shows that their illegal practices are being patronized by influential people and the mafia. The people claimed that for years, Pak Colony and the Gutter Baghicha sites had been the centre of water mafia activities where they had established their strong network for illegal water business.

A number of road accidents, some of them fatal, had taken place over the past few years due to the rash driving by the water tanker operators in the narrow lanes of the locality. The residents also complained that the mafia had been running crime dens in Mewashah graveyard where they had been occupying a vast area.

They complainants said that the mafia had become strong enough to challenge the local administration, by creating artificial law and order situation, in case of any proposed action against it.

The people said they failed to understand as to how a public welfare project, having been approved by the President of the state, could not be executed.

The residents have urged the President to look into the matter and direct the provincial and local governments for the early execution of the project in the greater interest of the general public and get them rid of the menaces of illegal hydrants, water mafia and criminal activities.