KARACHI: The historical Jahangir Park in Saddar is set to be opened to public after months of renovation and rehabilitation by the Sindh government, which has spent Rs200 million on the project, said an official on Monday.

The project was initiated after Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah paid a surprise visit to the park in August last year and directed the authorities concerned to renovate the facility, which had turned into a garbage dump due to official neglect.

“The renovation has been completed,” said Niaz Soomro, the additional secretary of local bodies. “The total cost of the renovation is estimated to be around Rs200m and we hope the project would add value to the city’s park culture and visibly change the landscape of the city’s busiest neighbourhood,” he said, adding that the chief minister is expected to inaugurate the renovated park.

Iconic park had been encroached upon and turned into a rubbish dump

The six-acre park with the trees nurtured therein was donated to the people of Karachi by a Parsi philanthropist, Khan Bahadur Behramjee Jehangirjee Rajkotwala in 1893. 

The park provided recreation to generations of Karachiites and later a cricket ground and a pavilion were built to further add value and people’s interest to the facility. However, the park suffered neglect over the years due to a variety of reasons. The park was occupied by hundreds of pushcart vendors who razed its walls and grills to illegally occupy its land.

A portion of the park was later occupied by an illegal bus terminal of minibus owners and the remaining part of the facility remained a preferred choice of drug addicts and homeless people. 

A turnaround was made possible after the August 2016 visit of CM Shah to the park and his instant orders. “In August the chief minister with his staff paid a surprise visit to the park without protocol and prior announcement,” said an official privy to the details of the renovation project. 

“He expressed his serious displeasure on the amount of litter in the park and lamented that the fruit and vegetable vendors and other shopkeepers working around the park had turned it into a garbage dumping ground. He then called a meeting of relevant officials and issued directives to the authorities concerned to construct a compound wall around the park and develop it properly. That led to the launch of Jahangir Park’s renovation project.”

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017