If urban planning was done with careful consideration, the traffic and infrastructural situation would be much better
KARACHI: A recent report projects Lahore as the world’s largest city by 2050, in terms of the rapid population and infrastructural growth in the city. Due to the rural-urban migration, cities are more prone to scarce housing and transportation facilities. As private housing projects cater to the needs of the middle and upper class, the lower class mostly performing blue collar jobs dwells in slums or small illegal settlements. Sustained, planned and controlled growth can help reduce many of the problems that result directly from unplanned urban growth.
Lack of proper planning would divert the resource burden to urban areas, out-balancing the resource distribution and allocation. Provision of housing, health and transportation facilities surely indicate urban growth and better life prospects that attract migrants from rural regions. However, poor urban planning only makes the spread haphazard. For instance, during the past decade numerous flyovers were built across Karachi. However, looking at the current traffic management system in the city it is not hard to deduce the planning failure such an initiative was. The space under the flyovers, however, serves multiple purposes. Either used for parking purpose by nearby offices or as sanctuary to many illegal business and contract vendors. Space under the flyovers is also a permanent settlement to the many homeless in the city, unless forcefully removed or evacuated by the departments concerned. Further, many of the flyovers or pedestrian bridges completely fail to serve the purpose of easing the traffic burden or providing a safe walk through for pedestrians.
Conclusively, if urban planning was done with careful consideration of all the factors present and those that were likely to emerge over time, the traffic and infrastructural situation would not have reached such a low point in the city.
Hamna Masood
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
