Paucity of funds impedes city survey: official

Commissioner says Hyderabad to get metropolitan status once population reaches 5m

KARACHI:

The Commissioner of Hyderabad Division Nadeemur Rehman Memon has assured the business community of taking up the matter of Hyderabad City Survey with Board of Revenue for early completion of the exercise.

The survey of properties in the district is necessary to ascertain the rural or urban status in addition to completing the title of the estates in the area, however, shortage of funds remains an impediment, Memon told office bearers of Hyderabad Chamber of Small Trade and Small Industry (HCSTSI) at a meeting co-chaired by DIG Peer Muhammad Shah.

The commissioner said the shortage of funds was the main constraint impeding the survey. Whereas, regarding preparation of Hyderabad Mater Plan, the Commissioner informed the meeting that all required formalities have been completed.

Quoting the survey department's officers, Memon said the exercise of enlisting all the properties in the district especially in Latifabad and Qasimabad talukas besides Tandojam town required funds which are still awaited.

Responding to the business community's demand for elevating the status of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to Hyderabad Metropolitan Corporation, the commissioner said the said status required population of five million people.

As per the existing population census, the city's population is only 2.2 million heads. He expressed hope that a decision in this regard may be taken after the next census. The business community also demanded that the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) should be turned into Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Board, similar to one in Karachi, so that public private partnership projects could be initiated.

The commissioner told the meeting that deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro, who is acting director general of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), has already written a letter to the provincial government to create the board in Hyderabad. Memon told the businessmen that a meeting to exclusively discuss creation of Hyderabad's master plan will be called soon. The commissioner assured that encroachment on the land of Badin stop, the district's sole bus stand, will be removed. The DIG Shah acknowledged that there is a lack of government approved bus stops in Sindh's second largest city as even many smaller cities have multiple stops.

He told that 100 personnel will soon be added to the city's traffic police to improve traffic regulation. The chamber's President Muhammad Farooq Shaikhani earlier read out the 10-point agenda of the meeting.

He requested that the October 28, 2016, notification of the SMBR should be implemented and all the agricultural land which has been converted for residential purposes should be registered directly in the city survey. Shaikhani pointed out that the master plan 2007-35 is almost complete and needed approval of the concerned officers, saying that the master plan is indispensable for future development of the city.

The chamber's president said the illegal transport stops should be shifted out of the densely populated areas because they are hampering movement of traffic and creating noise pollution. Zulfiqar Farooqi pointed out that the stormwater drains have not been constructed even with the main roads but rapid urban expansion in the forms of housing colonies and apartment buildings is underway along those roads. He said without the drains the overflow or slow drainage of sewage will continue to rear its ugly head during rainfall.

The meeting discussed using a plot owned by HMC near Qadam Gah as a parking lot to address the parking and traffic woes in that part of the downtown.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2022.