KARACHI, Aug 11: Slowly but steadily Karachi’s business geography is changing as new chains of warehouses and small commercial and industrial establishments are developing in the dense residential areas of the city and offices are moving out from what was the only one business district I.I. Chundrigar Road (old M’Cleod Road) to Clifton, Defence, Sharah-e-Faisal and almost all parts of the city.

Sharah-e-Faisal is fast becoming a new business centre with high-rise buildings, offices of the banks, IT and financial services locations. During day it takes more than an hour to drive from Jinnah Terminal to centre of the city because of traffic congestion. Only 15 years ago, the entire patch of Shahrah-e-Faisal was quite, desolate and almost haunted. More business offices are shifting to Shahrah-e-Faisal because of its nearness to airport. “It is easy to bring our foreign buyers to our office at Shaharah-e-Faisal than at Chundrigar Road,” a textile dealer said.

Clifton and Defence are other places where business offices are shifting. A business leader of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry has counted 135 business addresses in Defence and about 225 in Clifton. “Chundrigar Road has become too congested and at times almost impossible to pass through,” a senior banker said.

Because of more than four per cent annual population growth mainly caused by unending influx of immigrants, unplanned and unabated expansion of the city in all directions, some 15 million people endure electricity breakdowns, water shortages, an unbearable public transport system and equally nerve-racking traffic congestion and frightening rise in street crimes, but they do business in almost all parts of the city.

They are in the business as entrepreneurs, executives, professionals, office workers, self-employed, artisans, labourers, masons, plumbers, technicians, electricians, cart pullers, shop keepers and what not in all parts of the city. The real Karachi is now no more confined to port vicinity, Chundrigar Road and Jodia Bazar. The business Karachi is now all over the city from Keamari to Landhi and to North Karachi right up to Surjani Town.

One can count more than a dozen textile mills constructed or are under construction and as many as other manufacturing factories as one drives on the National Highway to Steel Mills. Business expansion in this area is on fast rise and is now threatening the famous Chaukhandi graveyard a heritage of Sindh.

The two sides of the Superhighway are dotted with farm houses. Farm houses do roaring business as they provide a place to relax. These farm houses have been developed on one and two acres allotted to businessmen about 20 years ago to develop poultry farms or livestock farms. Instead many of these are now farm houses depending on the underground water and electricity of installed generators. These farm houses offer packages to the people for picnic. There are corporate packages too and small companies hold their meetings or entertain their clients.

Gadap was once proposed to be the capital of Pakistan. Back in 1950s Gadap was planned to be seat of power with a parliament, central secretariat, many government buildings and official residences. The Federal B Area and North Nazimabad were designated to be satellite towns of the capital while the main Karachi was to be Latin Quarters. Nothing of this sort happened as Ayub Khan moved capital to Potohar near his home in 1960. But people are gradually taking business to Gadap and Nazimabad. Offices dealing in apparels, textiles and a variety of consumer items are involved in business activities.

SITE Manghopir looked a place of other world when Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah laid the foundation of the first factory, a woollen mill in 1948. Very few dared to put their money at stake and set up some manufacturing facility in SITE, Now there are more than 4,000 big and small factories and it boasts of being the biggest industrial enclave of the country. What was beyond the farthest corner of the city in 1948 is now in the heart of the city. The land cost has escalated to Rs60 million an acre.

In last six decades about a dozen designated and specified industrial zones have sprung up in and around Karachi and that too in all directions. There is Korangi, Landhi, Federal B Area, North Karachi, Dhabeji, Port Qasim. And now new industrial zones are being explored at Kaghar Phatak and in Scheme 33 near Super Highway.

Industrial zones are now being given a new shape. Now there are plans to develop commercial zones in and around each of the industrial zones. Banks, insurance companies, shipping, Central Board of Revenue are being asked to have their offices in the industrial zones. The idea is that industrialists get all services near their factories and instead of having a city office sit at the place where their core business is.

The UAE investors are said to be putting a lot of money in real estate business and hotel construction in various parts of the city. The sea front is getting a new shape. Officials and businessmen say that small islands close to Karachi have also attracted investors’ attention.

Being a part of Bombay Presidency till 1936, Karachi had special affinity with the Indian business and financial capital Mumbai. Following the construction of Suez Canal in Egypt, Karachi challenged Mumbai port dominance in this part of the world. After 1861 civil war in America, textile mills in Manchester, Birmingham and other parts starved of cotton. Karachi port became the main supplier as British lost no time in constructing a canal network in Punjab. Trade offices were set up on Mcleod Road and places near the port.

Relocation of business in Karachi can be compared with that of Mumbai. About two decades ago Mumbai’s central business district was Ballard Estate, Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade. No longer are these places the centre of business activities of the richest and most powerful people of India. Mumbai has its own limitations in growth and expansion. Mumbai does not have a large land mass, but Karachi has.

But in Mumbai the expansion and growth is planned keeping in view all factors -- the environment, the heritage and above all the people. In Karachi there was planning till 1950s. Since then planning is a luxury that neo rich constructor, developer can ill afford.