DHA residents suffer as roads remain dug up

CBC dug up roads three weeks ago but nobody showed up to pave them: residents

KARACHI: Clifton Cantonment Board (CBC) dug up the roads three weeks ago but all in vain. Nobody has showed up to initiate development work.

This account was shared by residents of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) who claim they have been facing inconvenience due to an inordinate delay in the completion of roads’ construction.

The eight-kilometre-long Saba Avenue starts from Clifton Block 4 and stretches all the way till the Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue in DHA Phase VIII. The two-kilometre patch that has been undergoing renovation for the last two weeks is the two-lane road from Khayaban-e-Hilal to Khayaban-e-Ittehad, which has houses on both the sides.

Pointing towards the crushed stones and sand strewn about, a resident of the area, Muhammad Azeem, told The Express Tribune it has been around 15 days that this ‘mess’ has been lying outside his house. “There is no harm in development work and no doubt it is only for us but proper planning lacked here,” he said, explaining how work was started when rain was already predicted and, as a result, sand mixed with rainwater and it became mud.

Another resident, Mrs Anwar, said that the residents are dissatisfied with the pace of work. “First, we had to suffer from the dilapidated roads and now the delayed renovation has made the residents irritable,” she said. She was of the opinion that the authorities could have started carpeting along with excavation but instead they excavated the whole thoroughfare that resulted in a dusty atmosphere.

The general secretary of the Association of Defence Residents, Asad Kizilbash, said that the people pay heavy amounts of taxes and charges, including house tax, conservancy and water charges, which is why they expect all the things accordingly.

Talking about the Saba Avenue, Kizilbash said that it does not only have a residential area, it also leads to several schools nearby, which is why the traffic situation is in a shambles during school hours. He added that many famous eateries, including chai dhabas [teashops], are in the surrounding areas, which is why the road is frequented by visitors as well.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of CBC, Aziz Suharwardy, admitted that even though there was no doubt that the work did not require long time but rainwater drainage between the roads has caused a few problems.

“We had to rebuild the road without affecting the rainwater drainage, which did not exist earlier but was installed after heavy rainfall in 2007,” he said. He added that since the drainage system is in the middle of the two-way road, they therefore had to excavate and carpet the road running on both the sides of the road. He explained that later they found out that several sewerage lines were also damaged, which were then replaced with the new ones as it could have created a problem in the future.

Suharwardy added that they acknowledge that the residents may have been facing many problems but the rainfall created additional problem. “Even then we will try our best to wind up this work in the next two weeks,” he said.

A traffic police official requesting anonymity deployed at the intersection of Khayaban-e-Muhafiz on Saba Avenue said that it is an important thoroughfare with a few signals since it connects commuters coming from as far as Bilawal House to Khayaban-e-Ittehad. He added that many commuters take Saba Avenue as an alternative route when there is increased flow of traffic at Khayaban-e-Shujaat, Khayaban-e-Shaheen and 26th Street. The official said that it’s not just the cars. Even public transport vehicles use this route, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2017.