Golimar underpass: Sindh govt misses yet another deadline

The project was to be completed by June 30

KARACHI: If there is one thing the Sindh government is consistent with, it is missing deadlines. The latest example is going past the promised date of the completion of the Golimar underpass in Nazimabad -June 30,.

In April, Sindh local government minister Jam Khan Shoro promised that the Golimar underpass would be completed in three months while then Karachi commissioner, Asif Hyder Shah, gave the deadline of June 30 for the project.

Work on the underpass had begun in April last year. Initially, a flyover was to be constructed at Golimar Chowrangi. At the eleventh hour, however, plans changed and the flyover project was converted into that of an underpass to facilitate the federal government's Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) flyover, which is also supposed to pass over Golimar Chowrangi.



According to Tanveer Mirza, chief resident engineer of Karachi Infrastructure and Development Company Limited - the company responsible for constructing the Green Line BRT - they are all set to complete the construction of the Green Line BRT flyover at Golimar Chowrangi within four months. Meanwhile, an engineer of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) at the site requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune that the construction work on the Golimar underpass can take another six months. The KMC's project director for the underpass, Shafiqur Rehman, had earlier told The Express Tribune that because of the Green Line, which is being funded and constructed by the federal government, KMC had to change the nature of their project.

In the span of one year, the underpass has seen four project directors. Initially, KMC chief engineer Asadullah Shah was looking after the project, following which Rehman was made the project director as Shah was given the charge of KMC's parks director-general. After that, Noorullah Shaikh was made the project director in December. Now, Rehman has once again been given the charge.



Rehman insisted that there was no way the work could have completed in June. Had the administrative issues, such as funding and delay in approval of the modified PC-1, been resolved on time, he said, they would have been able to complete the work on time.

Meanwhile, KMC technical director-general Niaz Somroo explained that they have recently received funds from the Sindh government for the project. He assured that the construction of the underpass will be completed before this August 14. "The piling work has been completed," he said, adding what is now left is the relocation of a Sui Southern Gas Company line.

However, a KMC engineer at the site shared that the construction of the underpass kicked off without the approval of the Sindh government, due to which the work was halted midway for about a year. "We got permission in April from the Chief Minister House to resume work," he said, adding that the engineering time for completion of any project is six months and Shoro's deadline was nothing more than a verbal statement.

Green Line flyover in full swing

While work on the Golimar underpass is going on at a miserably slow pace, work on the Green Line BRT flyover is at full speed.

According to Mirza, they have nothing to do with the Golimar underpass. "The Sindh government is not even worthy of coordination," he said, adding that he understood that the public was suffering due to the construction of the two projects at the same time. "Even we are unable to move our concrete and steel cages from one location to another due the blockage at Golimar Chowrangi," he said.

Talking about his project, he said that piling of the flyover had been completed all the way till Gurumandir and they will complete the flyover's construction work in the next four months.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2016.