Where the streets have no lights

With the city's main arteries gripped in darkness, petty thieves have let loose.

KARACHI: Rethink Karachi as ‘the city of lights’ as its street lights are mostly off.

Even though millions of rupees were spent installing new street lights, especially to illuminate the new flyovers and freeways, the main arteries of the metropolis are gripped by darkness after the sun sets.

People have a lot of trouble making their way through Sharae Faisal, MA Jinnah Road, Sharae Pakistan, Shaheed-e-Millat Road and the three signal-free corridors in particular.

Major roads in DHA are also so dark that drivers use their high-beam light, making their life easier but difficult and blindingly dangerous for drivers coming from the opposite direction.

According to the City District Government, Karachi’s (CDGK) works and services department, around 50 per cent of the electricity cables supplying power to street lights have been stolen. Officials say the authorities have lost Rs150 million. The departmental staff, even the maintenance staff, had no other information about why the lights are not working and when they will be functional again.

“We realise that this is a big problem for the city as this is also giving way to an increase in street crime,” said EDO works and services Rasheed Mughal. “Criminals take advantage of the darkness and flee easily.”

The main reason for the city’s street light problem is the sheer negligence of the CDGK authorities, officials claim. “They just keep hiring their favourites in whichever department they please,” they said. “This is why 90 per cent of the street lights of the city don’t work.”

An official, on the condition of anonymity, said the people hired for street light maintenance have no background or qualification related to the work. “They don’t have a clue about how the system works.”

He believed that the city will be in darkness for a long time as millions of rupees are needed for the network to be repaired and the government “clearly does not have the money.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2010.