Jehangir Road depicts a sorry sight
The one-kilometre road is in a dilapidated state with broken sewerage lines.
Jehangir Road, a major route between districts South and Central, is in utter despair. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS
KARACHI:
Ill-maintained Jehangir Road is a telling tale of the government's apathy towards citizens' concerns.
The one-kilometre narrow road starts from Teen Hatti Bridge and ends at Gurumandir between the famous Martin Quarters. A large number of commuters use this route to travel to and fro between District Central and District South. The government's attitude towards dilapidated roads and broken sewerage lines leaves commuters, who use such roads on a daily basis, angry and frustrated.
Who is responsible?
The responsibility of the maintenance of the federal government's Martin Quarters, Jehangir Quarters along the Jehangir Road, lies with the Public Works Department (PWD). The sewerage system that lies under the Jehangir Road comes under the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) while the sewerage lines of the quarters are under the PWD. Residents say they are tired of complaining to the KWSB and public works department authorities, adding that the broken sewerage lines beneath the road are causing damage to the road.
"It seems that either we are not the citizens of this city or our area is somewhere out of Karachi," said Muhammad Naeem, a resident of Martin Quarters.
According to KWSB District East superintendent engineer, the roadside drains that fall under the jurisdiction of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have increased pressure on the sewerage lines beneath the road, which ends up damaging the line. These roadside drains, he said, have not been cleaned since long, creating problems in the sewerage lines. "We have repaired these lines quite a few times but they end up getting damaged again," he said. Qadir explained that back in 2007, the drains were under the KWSB and were adequately cleaned from time to time.
The Express Tribune tried to contact the relevant officer in KMC but to no avail. Residents claimed that no authority accepts the responsibility of maintaining the road and play the blame-game, ignoring the suffering of the people.
Commuters and commerce
The road has quite a bit of commercial activity with automobile workshops and some flower shops near the shrine of Hazrat Noori Shah Baba.
Due to the large number of commuters using the road to travel between the Central and South districts, traffic jams are frequently witnessed at the site. Huge potholes that developed on the road a year ago were repaired but with poor quality material. Motorcyclists usually prefer to drive on the footpaths instead of the road to save themselves from the dirt and sewerage lying at the site. A motorcyclist told The Express Tribune that these potholes are not new for him. "It takes 25 to 30 minutes to cross this segment of one kilometre," said another driver, Wazir Bangash.
Taking care
The assistant commissioner of District East, Syed Muhammad Ali Zaidi, said that he sent a recommendation about the dilapidated roads of Gurumandir and its surrounding areas to the commissioner a month ago. He expects the work to start in a week or so.
The newly elected vice-chairman of union council 15, Umar Farooq, brought some sweepers to drive the water away from the main road. He told The Express Tribune that even though he is not empowered as yet to take such steps, he is trying to come up with a temporary solution due to the complaints of the residents.
He added that as the flow of the traffic is slow, mobile snatching is also common on this route.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2016.
Ill-maintained Jehangir Road is a telling tale of the government's apathy towards citizens' concerns.
The one-kilometre narrow road starts from Teen Hatti Bridge and ends at Gurumandir between the famous Martin Quarters. A large number of commuters use this route to travel to and fro between District Central and District South. The government's attitude towards dilapidated roads and broken sewerage lines leaves commuters, who use such roads on a daily basis, angry and frustrated.
Who is responsible?
The responsibility of the maintenance of the federal government's Martin Quarters, Jehangir Quarters along the Jehangir Road, lies with the Public Works Department (PWD). The sewerage system that lies under the Jehangir Road comes under the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) while the sewerage lines of the quarters are under the PWD. Residents say they are tired of complaining to the KWSB and public works department authorities, adding that the broken sewerage lines beneath the road are causing damage to the road.
"It seems that either we are not the citizens of this city or our area is somewhere out of Karachi," said Muhammad Naeem, a resident of Martin Quarters.
According to KWSB District East superintendent engineer, the roadside drains that fall under the jurisdiction of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have increased pressure on the sewerage lines beneath the road, which ends up damaging the line. These roadside drains, he said, have not been cleaned since long, creating problems in the sewerage lines. "We have repaired these lines quite a few times but they end up getting damaged again," he said. Qadir explained that back in 2007, the drains were under the KWSB and were adequately cleaned from time to time.
The Express Tribune tried to contact the relevant officer in KMC but to no avail. Residents claimed that no authority accepts the responsibility of maintaining the road and play the blame-game, ignoring the suffering of the people.
Commuters and commerce
The road has quite a bit of commercial activity with automobile workshops and some flower shops near the shrine of Hazrat Noori Shah Baba.
Due to the large number of commuters using the road to travel between the Central and South districts, traffic jams are frequently witnessed at the site. Huge potholes that developed on the road a year ago were repaired but with poor quality material. Motorcyclists usually prefer to drive on the footpaths instead of the road to save themselves from the dirt and sewerage lying at the site. A motorcyclist told The Express Tribune that these potholes are not new for him. "It takes 25 to 30 minutes to cross this segment of one kilometre," said another driver, Wazir Bangash.
Taking care
The assistant commissioner of District East, Syed Muhammad Ali Zaidi, said that he sent a recommendation about the dilapidated roads of Gurumandir and its surrounding areas to the commissioner a month ago. He expects the work to start in a week or so.
The newly elected vice-chairman of union council 15, Umar Farooq, brought some sweepers to drive the water away from the main road. He told The Express Tribune that even though he is not empowered as yet to take such steps, he is trying to come up with a temporary solution due to the complaints of the residents.
He added that as the flow of the traffic is slow, mobile snatching is also common on this route.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2016.