Sukkur’s flyover finally completed after four long years

Its foundation stone was laid 14 years ago.

SUKKUR:

Flyovers are not a measure of development - just a city’s lack of mass transit. But in Sukkur they are the barometer of the pace of work. It took four whole years to build the one connecting New Pind and the main city. Its foundation stone was laid thrice, 14 years ago.

It was inaugurated on Friday by Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Islamuddin Shaikh and his son, MNA Nauman Islam Shaikh. It cost Rs270 million and is the second flyover for the city - the first one was built 16 years ago.

“Today we have fulfilled a long-standing demand of the residents of New Pind by constructing this flyover,” said Shaikh. He saw it fit to champion this performance by pegging it to the success of the PPP in the next general elections.

From old to New Pind

A thickly populated area of Sukkur, New Pind, has several colonies. Travelling to and from the main city for residents is difficult because of a railway crossing which remains closed most of the time. There is also a lack of health facilities, which compels people to travel far and wide to receive medical treatment, with some of them dying on their way to hospital. Students and people going to their offices are also affected by this crossing.

The hardships faced by the people were the main reason to construct the flyover. The foundation stone, however, was laid over 14 years ago by the current federal minister for religious affairs, Khursheed Ahmed Shah, then by Islamuddin Shaikh and then by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ladies wing leader, Khursheed Afghan. But construction never started.

Once the PPP came back to power, work began, and was initially going to take six months, but took four years. This delay was caused by several modifications such as protective walls on both sides, which according to the design were supposed to be three feet high.

A mega drainage project at an estimated cost of Rs500 million was launched in 2005. It aims to carry sewerage through pipelines to huge tanks for treatment and release it into the River Indus. But it is still incomplete.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2012.