Board Office Interchange likely to be inaugurated around May 15

PM Nawaz Sharif expected to inaugurate interchange, says official

KARACHI: State-of-the-art Board Office Interchange is likely to be opened for the public around May 15.

An official of the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL) shared this information, adding that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to inaugurate the interchange.

Monuments with names of District Central's notable personalities inscribed on them will also be built at the curves of the interchange for the purpose of beautification, the official said.



The interchange is being constructed by the KIDCL under the Rs16-billion Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) funded by the federal government that will run on segregated lanes from Surjani Town to Saddar. The first phase of BRT is from Surjani Town up till Gurumandir that has been divided in four packages. The entire third package comprised the Board Office Interchange at a cost of around Rs800 million.

Several fast food restaurants at the triangular belt opposite Jinnah University for Women were destroyed for the construction of the interchange as they had been illegally leased. The issue had remained pending in court, which also delayed the construction work.

Another major hurdle in the construction of the interchange was of utility lines that included high-tension wires of K-Electric and Sui Southern Gas Company gas pipelines, which had to be moved two kilometres away, and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board's (KWSB) pipelines, which were shifted four kilometres away. A KWSB pumping station had to be relocated as well.



According to the KIDCL's technical manager, Qesar Ali, the traffic moving from and towards Gurumandir will move signal free under the interchange at the Board Office while the traffic coming from Orangi Town towards Gurumandir will be using the Interchange.

Ali further said the carpeting work of the flyover has been completed while installation of street lights and curb stones on the flyover's ramps are underway. Work on the demolition of the two-way Board Office Flyover that was constructed over Pakistan Railways' track is almost complete and the rubble would be removed in a week or two, he added.

Tanveer Mirza, a resident engineer of EA Consulting Private Limited, the consultancy firm for the BRT, shared there are U-turn provisions for the traffic moving from Gurumandir and in the opposite direction at the interchange.



Monuments

The monuments that will be constructed at the curves will include a sundial. The chief financial officer of the KIDCL, Zubair Channa, told The Express Tribune that the sundial would be in replacement of the AO Clock Tower at the place, which had been dismantled for the construction of the Green Line BRT.

The monuments will also include celebration poles. Channa explained there would be round marble poles on which names of famous personalities - mostly of those from District Central such as Ibne Insha - will be engraved along with information. The poles will be constructed on a triangular passage on Dr Adib Rizvi Road towards the interchange.

The map of Nazimabad as it was in the 1970s, showing every street and all the 14 blocks, will be engraved on a marble on the way towards North Nazimabad, Channa said. The sundial will also be constructed on the same passage.



Landscape Architecture Studio's principal landscape architect, Komal Parvez, has been tasked by the KIDCL for the construction of the monuments.