After three years, Malir 15 flyover still awaits completion

Project to be completed by October this year, says KMC official

KARACHI: Three years after its launch, the Malir 15 Flyover has yet to see the light of the day even after countless deadlines and promises from the Sindh government to complete the unfinished project.

On February 8 this year, then chief minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah and MNA Faryal Talpur had inaugurated half of the flyover from Malir 15 bus stop to Millat Bakery, after missing several deadlines in the past.



During the inauguration, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro had announced that the flyover’s portion from Quaidabad to Azeempura, which expands over the Pakistan Railways’ land, will be completed by June this year. However, when The Express Tribune visited the site, the said section was still under construction.

Bad for business

With three years having passed since the construction of the flyover began, local residents, and the Landhi Association of Trade and Industry (Lati) and Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (Bqati) eagerly await the flyover’s completion.

The general secretary of Lati, Mobeen Khan, said they have been facing severe economic losses due to the delay in construction. Though the major portion of the flyover is open, but the main roads leading to the flyover are still full of ditches, he complained.

Due to the delay in the construction of the Azeempura section, the wrong-way traffic has increased drastically, which causes severe traffic jams during rush hours.  “Several applications to the commissioner and CM have been written,” he said, deploring that the flyover’s construction has been going on for the past three years.



Reasons for delay

Meanwhile, Shamul Haq of the EA consulting private limited - the consultants of the project -claimed that 100% piling work for the remaining portion of the flyover has been completed and now they just have to launch the garters.

He explained that the project’s other track was being constructed for the uninterrupted movement of the traffic from the Azeempura towards Kala Board and from Quaidabad towards the Azeempura, as a railway track is beneath it. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s engineer for the project, Syed Ishrat Rehan, assured that by October this year, the remaining portion of the project would be completed.

Speaking about the delay in the construction, he said an illegally constructed mosque and a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Pakistan Railways were the main reasons behind the delay. He explained that it took them a long time to negotiate with the mosque’s management to allow authorities to demolish it so it could be relocated later. “Now, it has been decided that they would raise funds to construct a new mosque,” he said.



Due to the railway track, the labourers got six to seven hours a day to work on the site, added Rehan. “Due to the movement of trains, we have to remove our heavy machineries from the site, else there could be an accident,” he said, adding that it’s not at all an easy task to work in that area.

Though the KMC has done pilling on the Pakistan Railway’s land, he said that it has yet to receive the NOC from them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2016.