Hurry up: Slow construction of flyovers cause nuisance for motorists

KMC blames encroachments for the delay.


Our Correspondent April 08, 2014
This picture from April 4 shows construction for the fly-over at Malir 15 underway. PHOTO: NNI

KARACHI: Commuters who travel through Landhi, Quaidabad and Gulshan-e-Hadeed from Sharae Faisal have been facing a lot of hardship due to the slow construction of flyovers at Malir 15 and Malir Halt.

"The rubble from the construction work, a big pond of contaminated water and a much smaller alternate route are some of the hurdles that we have to face on a daily basis," said a motorist, Muhammad Rizwan. "Normally, we are able to travel the distance in 10 or 15 minutes but now it takes at least an hour during peak hours. The administration needs to provide a better alternate route to facilitate the vehicles."



The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) technical services director, Niaz Ahmed Soomro, while talking to The Express Tribune, admitted that the commuters face inconvenience on the route and blamed encroachments for the delay in construction work. "We have requested the anti-encroachment department to immediately remove all encroachments so that the work can be conducted at a faster pace," he added.

Soomro also stressed the need to pick up pace in order to finish the project as soon as possible.

However, the KMC anti-encroachment department director, Mazhar Khan, told The Express Tribune that removing these encroachments is harder than it looks. "The encroachments at Malir 15 were established decades ago and most of the makeshift stalls have solid concrete foundations," he said. "Due to this, there is a lot of resistance in the area against an anti-encroachment drive. However, most of the encroachments at Malir Halt have been removed, while those at Malir 15 will hopefully be removed during the week."

The issue has also been noticed by KMC administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqui, who directed Khan to immediately remove the encroachments so that the construction work can be expedited.

Farooqui denied Khan's claim of resistance against the anti-encroachment drive and said that the residents of the area have extended their full cooperation, before insisting that all works need to be completed on time. "Development projects are made to provide better facilities to the people and they must be completed on time and should be of a certain quality."

He then directed the relevant authorities to ensure continuous work on both projects and also ordered the presence of the project director at the respective sites.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2014. 

COMMENTS (1)

ali | 9 years ago | Reply

bring mustafa kamal back from dubai, altaf bhai should not be opposed to people in his party who are gaining popularity, it should not be a one man show, stop trying to be karachi's king ... also sindhis should not oppose a muhajir just because he is a muhajir. besides karachi is not a sindhi city

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