Hyderabad-Tando Muhammad Khan road drainage woes remain unresolved

Authorities worry TM Khan road will be inundated by monsoon rains once again this year

HYDERABAD:

The surroundings of the Hyderabad-Tando Muhammad Khan road, including parts of the Hyderabad SITE area, saw flooding last summer, remaining submerged for several weeks after the monsoon rains of 2019. This year, history is likely to repeat, with the private company constructing the dual carriageway neither building the necessary storm drain nor fixing depressions on the road.

"Time and again concerns have been raised by the SITE engineer regarding the design of the storm drain and the road being constructed by your department," wrote the deputy commissioner's (DC) office to the provincial highways department on July 13. With the start of the monsoon season, DC Fuad Ghaffar Soomro has asked the department's chief engineer to address both the problems at the earliest.

The SITE department has reportedly brought the matter to the highways department's attention repeatedly since January, 2019. The former has also sent six reminders to the latter over the last 18 months.

The SITE area's two culverts and storm drain ran parallel to the road before the project to widen the carriageway began in 2018. The SITE claimed that the new road design did not include the culverts and the drains, which, after the project's completion, would block the passage of sewage from the industrial zone and adjoining housing colonies.

While officials from the two departments and the district administration have held several rounds of meetings to resolve the matter, the work has not yet been completed.

Soomro also wrote a letter to the Sindh works and services secretary on July 3, pointing out the depression and potholes in the road from Fateh Chowk to Nara Jail. "Last year I visited the road, which was completely inundated due to the incomplete developmental work," he wrote. "[But] in the past year, the situation has gone from bad to worse." The DC further said at a meeting last month that he had been apprised about the contractor's liabilities but was also assured the highways department would address the problems.

According to him, the highways department held the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) responsible for the drainage woes along the road. However, Soomro pointed out, Wasa could not be held responsible in any manner for depressions in the road or faults in the drainage design.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2020.