Sindh asked to revisit Zulfiqarabad project

The Sindh government has been asked to revisit the Zulfiqarabad modern city project by the authority originally tasked with developing it, The Express Tribune has learned.

The project, which envisioned building a state-of-the-art city over several talukas of Thatta and Sujawal districts, has been on ice since September 2013, due to a Sindh High Court stay order. Other developments since then have also reinforced the impression that it may no longer be possible to allot much of the land the city was supposed to be built over.

However, the discovery of gas reserves in Sujawal district’s Jati taluka and progress of the Sindh Barrage project in Ghorabari taluka of Thatta appears to have reignited the Zulfiqarabad Development Authority’s interest in the project. Land from the Ghorabari taluka was also originally earmarked for Zulfiqarabad, sources said.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, ZDA managing director Ali Mumtaz Shah said he had sent the provincial chief minister a letter recommending that the Zulfiqarabad project be revisited in light of developments in the Water and Power Development Authority’s (Wapda) Sindh Barrage project.

“Wapda has been able get the construction of a bridge in Ghorabari taluka approved recently. The bridge is to be constructed on the same spot where part of the Zulfiqarabad project was supposed to built upon,” Shah revealed. “Wapda is also using the same design for the construction of an expressway in Ghorabari,” he said. “The discovery of gas reserves in Jati has also resulted in the grant of passage through an area that was also allotted for Zulfiqarabad,” he added.

According to Zaidi, ZDA is currently carrying out a study of other areas allotted for Zulfiqarabad. “We want to determine if the land is still suitable or not for the project due to floods in the past,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2020.