KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that facilities at the Arts Council have been revitalised by improving its external areas to attract a greater audience.
Mr Shah was speaking at a ceremony held for the opening of revitalised urban spaces outside the Arts Council — which offers a platform for social integration of artists, intellectuals, students and women — focusing on fast, low-cost and high-impact interventions.
The ceremony was attended by Home Secretary Qazi Kabir, who is also the project director of the Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Programme (KNIP), Karachi Arts Council president Mohammed Ahmed Shah, representatives of the World Bank Group, artists and people from all walks of life.
The chief minister said his government with the financial and technical support of the World Bank started a four-year project in July 2017. The purpose of undertaking this project was to enhance public spaces, urban roads’ infrastructure and mobility and to ensure people’s access to markets in targeted neighbourhoods such as Saddar, Malir and Korangi.
“Educational and cultural zone in Saddar is being overhauled, renovated and rehabilitated, which includes Din Muhammad Wafai Road or Strachan Road, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and M.R. Kayani Road that form a triangular boundary. This has been selected as a sub-project area of phase-1,” he said.
He added that the total length of the sub-project roads was estimated to be 2.5 kilometres. “A parking plaza has also been built to tackle the challenges of parking in one of the most crowded areas of the city located at the National Museum.”
Mr Shah said the Arts Council had been renovated to provide safe public spaces for promoting culture and art activities.
“The Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Project working under the planning and development department is undertaking projects for providing enhanced public spaces in targeted neighbourhoods, improved urban road infrastructure to enhance mobility for access to important places, improve city’s capacity to provide selected administrative services,” he said.
He added that the World Bank Group on the request of the Sindh government carried out a Karachi City Diagnostic (KCD) plan for implementation of a Karachi transformation strategy through short- and long-term engagements.
“The Karachi City Diagnostic plan provides an overview of challenges and opportunities faced by the Karachi metropolitan region and estimates investment levels needed to bridge the infrastructure gap and improve the metropolitan region’s economic potential.
“The facility of Arts Council is revitalised and its space is being used for socio-cultural activities such as exhibitions, musical evenings and literacy settings.
“Semi-covered/indoor event space for 100 persons (Gulrang) on the northern and southern courtyards, semi-covered event space for exhibitions on ground floor of Manzar Akbar Hall substation has also been upgraded with two fountains, seating spaces, plantation, landscape features, lighting, ancillary facilities [etc],” he said.
The CM said from socio-economic point, this project was based on participatory approach.
One-window operation at SBCA
Mr Shah said another component of the KNIP was the “single-window facility for the Sindh Building Control Authority to facilitate the automation of construction permits under one roof.
“The time required for construction permits has [been] reduced from 45 days to 15 days. The Ease of Doing Business Index ranking of the country has improved. The SBCA with 60pc weightage in the country has been one of the reasons for better ranking of the country.”
He said the Sindh government had always been supportive of initiatives that intended to enhance the rich culture of Karachi like the KNIP had done in the Arts Council’s precinct. “The intervention carried out in the Arts Council precinct is not going to end here but will continue in phase-II where open-air theatre of Arts Council will be rejuvenated.”
Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2019