KARACHI, May 20: The telephone lines and connections of other utility services of several houses located on two major streets of Bath Island have been badly damaged during digging works being carried out in connection with the construction of a storm-water drain.

Residents of the affected houses told Dawn that because of the haphazard digging, aside from damage to utility lines, the earth taken out from the dug up portion of the streets had been dumped in front of the houses, creating further hindrances.

Water was also gushing out from a pipeline that was ruptured a couple of days back, and had accumulated in the dug up portion of a street, they added.

Lashing out at the messy situation created in the locality, a perturbed resident of Bath Island’s Street No 4, M. Rahimtoola, told Dawn that the ugly situation has been prevailing in and around his locality because the construction of the storm-water drain that began about six months ago, was continuing at a snail’s pace.

A similar messy situation was recently created in Gulistan-i-Jauhar, where the water, sewerage system and even gas connections of a number of residents were severed during digging works being carried out to lay pipelines.

“In fact, the officials concerned of the KWSB took more than a week to restore our water connections and sewerage system because they were initially unwilling to undertake the job. But they had to do it after they were constantly pursued as the water connections and sewerage system was damaged by their contractor,” an affected resident told Dawn.