Karachi drains operation to start tomorrow
Planing minister said billions of rupees would be allocated for cleaning Karachi. PHOTO: FILE
Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who is a member of a six-member committee formed to address Karachi’s civic woes, has said an operation would be launched from Monday (tomorrow) to remove encroachments from three major drains of the city.
“The NDMA [National Disaster Management Authority] has already started working on it,” the minister said while addressing a function in Karachi after a meeting of the committee.
“Encroachments will be removed from Malir, Lyari and Gujjar nullahs,” he added.
“The opportunity to get this done is for a limited time only and work [to remove the encroachments] should start as soon as possible.”
The minister said billions of rupees would be allocated for cleaning Karachi.
“Karachi is the country’s economic hub. Its development means the country’s development,” he noted.
“The [Karachi] committee is working for the development of the city.”
Umar also lauded the Memon community for its contributions to the city, particularly in terms of its humanitarian efforts.
“Nobody carries out as much welfare work as the Memon community does in Karachi.”
Earlier in the day, the committee met at the Chief Ministers House. Its members, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, Education Minister Saeed Ghani and Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah -- representing the provincial government -- and federal ministers Asad Umar, Ali Zaidi and Aminul Haque participated in the meeting.
They discussed development projects in Karachi and a strategy to clean the drains in the city. It was decided that encroachments would be removed from major drains and the residents displaced by this operation would be provided with alternative accommodation.
Other projects in the province also came under discussion. The provincial Information minister pointed out that slow pace of work on the Jamshoro-Sehwan section of Indus Highway. He added that the provincial government had provided the Centre with Rs7 billion for the project.
The issue of the lining of KB Feeder was also taken up during the meeting. The provincial information minister said the lining of the KB feeder would help in reducing water seepage.
The federal government and the provincial government of Sindh have recently formed the six-member coordination committee to look into the issues of Karachi and to ensure early completion of development projects in the country’s commercial hub.
The committee has no convener and both sides are working on the basis of mutual understandings. The committee is seeking to remove the bottlenecks impeding the completion of longstanding projects including the Karachi Circular Railways, the K-IV, and the S-3 projects through mutual consultation.
It is working on six priority areas – water, sewerage system, transport, roads infrastructure, solid waste disposal and removal of encroachments.