City’s posh areas to get 14-km new SDS worth Rs 500 million

Under the aegis of CDGK, KWSB allocates development funds:

December 22, 2010
By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: For the first time in its history, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) under the aegis of City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has allocated funds for the installation of a new storm drain system (SDS) in city’s posh residential sectors including Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society and key areas in the vicinity.

The localities had been under high risks of damages that were inflicted by the accumulation of storm water but owing to challenging hindrances the installation of SDS was went on pending for decades. These challenges included high profile residential and business centres’ entity while Pakistan’s key avenue Shahra-e Faisal was lying midway to age-old SDS.

City nazim who has officially performed the ground breaking ceremony of the SDS for these posh city areas on Friday said that he had urged the KWSB management to partake a little ownership of the city and should allocate funds for the installation of the system, which was responded to positively. Sindh Information Technology minister Raza Haroon, KWSB additional vice chairman Imamuddin Shahzad, KWSB managing director Qutubuddin Shaikh, Gulshan-e-Iqbal nazim Muhammad Wasay Jalil, Jamshed Town nazim Javed Ahmed and others had accompanied the city nazim.

DailyTimes had meanwhile conducted a survey of the entire area and found that the tail end of the already working storm drain canal was grossly encroached by thousands of huts and spatial settlements and in fact, this has prevented any further widening or fresh installation of SDS. Further, the encroached land was owned by the Pakistan Railways, which they could not get evicted nor any measures for the rehabilitation of the residents of these huts and spatial settlements were acted upon.

When this scribe asked the city nazim as how he would deal with the situation, he replied that the project would have commenced quite earlier but the things that this scribe has pointed out were reviewed in detail with much consumption of time. The issue of encroachment was also considered and would be resolved with the assistance of authorities concerned.

He added that the consultant firm of the project had engaged top experts and carried out the study that covered every aspect of the project and has involved data of past 100 year rains in the city to cope up with the assorted problems and to ensure the new system would perform undisturbed for next 50 years.

He said that the experts and senior consultants had been hired for this project and the drain will be constructed in accordance to the modern demands.

The project would facilitate the residents of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Jamshed Town municipal administrations’ 2 union councils including PECHS Block-2, 6, Nursery Market, KDA Scheme-1, Bahadurabad, Sharfabad and cooperative housing societies, Tipu Sultan Road, Katchi Memon Society, Hill Park, Jinnah Cooperative Housing Society, Molai Park area, Umer Colony, Karachi Administration Cooperative Housing Society, Mehmoodabad, Manzoor Colony, Shahra-e Quaideen, Tariq Road, Khalid Bin Walid Road, Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society, E Market and Chaneesar Goth.

City nazim further said that the KWSB would construct 14-km long SDS with PC-1 cost of Rs 500 million. The estimated time of completion of the project was one year but due to importance of these localities, the project would be completed within just 4 months form now onward.

He lauded KWSB for partaking the installation of the new SDS for allocating those hefty funds, adding that the CDGK would provide all help as regards to technical, mechanical and machinery support.

The encroachments have caused choking of 2-km of present storm drain, which would be cleared to ensure smooth flow of storm water while rehabilitation and cleaning of other storm water drains located around Shahra-e Faisal, Railway Crossing, Manzoor Colony, Mehmoodabad and Waris Shah drain would be a part of the ongoing project.