KMC, Sindh govt aim to start Mehran hotel underpass in a month

Traffic to be squeezed to the side as contractor works in the centre.

KARACHI:

Work will start on the Nusrat Bhutto underpass at Mehran Hotel on Sharae Faisal in about a month’s time - a small wait for a project that has been in the offing since Mustafa Kamal was mayor of Karachi.

“The ground-breaking ceremony will take place in about 30 days,” confirmed Niaz Ahmed Soomro, the director-general of technical services for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Monday. He was quick to mention though that it was a Sindh government project and that Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and Local Government Minister Owais Muzaffar were to thank for pushing it ahead.

Their administrative and political weight would have been essential as the intersection is a “sensitive” one. Army buildings and infrastructure, such as the defense communication fibre optic network, are located in the area. Indeed, a chunk of the cost will go into shifting the utility lines, which include a 48-inch water and 33-inch sewage line among others.

The total cost has been pegged at Rs458 million and the money will come from outside the annual development programme funds, at the CM’s discretion. Shamsher Khan & Co, who just built the Jinnah terminal flyover, will be undertaking this one as well.

The underpass will be 338 meters long with 144-meter-long ramps that will connect the Cantt station side to the Kamal Hospital side.

The project has had its fair share of hiccups. It was initially slated to be a flyover, but this design was scrapped. The traffic police have yet to give their NoCs. They have been concerned that this project should not take place until the traffic jams at Hotel Metropole are solved; they fear the Mehran hotel pressure will be shifted ahead on to this circular route that is already nightmarish in rush hour. However, there is a precedent KMC is using to persuade the traffic police that this will not be the case: Clifton underpass.

“They key is traffic diversion [in such projects],” stressed Khalid Masroor, a long-time KMC project director who has 19 flyovers under his belt. He gave the example of the recently constructed Jinnah terminal flyover. “Kissi ko pata bhi nahi laga,” he said referring to how effectively the traffic was diverted. There were no upset commuters, no protests, he indicated.

KMC’s experts on the project are aware that the Mehran hotel intersection is a particularly problematic one - traffic cannot be easily diverted onto other roads. This is why the secant piling method is being used.

First traffic will be diverted in a curve to the side and the engineers will work in a 15 metre by 12 metre ‘square’ or patch in the middle of the intersection. Interlocking columns of alternately reinforced concrete or piles will be driven in to the ground to form the underpass’s walls. “We will use straight rotary drill machines,” explained Zafar Anis, the manager of projects for Shamsher Khan & Co.

First engineers will work on one ‘square’ in the middle of the road. Traffic will then be diverted along the opposite side and work will start on a second ‘square’. Once the walls are driven in, a one-meter deep surface for the underpass will be coated on to the square. In the end the underpass will be dug or scooped out.

Anis estimated that it would take them up to seven months, if no unforeseeable delays interrupt the work. The shifting of the utilities is still being worked out between the KMC and water board, he said, adding, however, that if asked, they would be happy to help.

The disadvantages of an underpass are many given our propensity to ignore drainage infrastructure the year round and that fact that the disposal site is located far away. During the monsoons, pumping the water could be problematic as well. These headaches don’t occur with flyovers. Flyovers have their own drawbacks, especially in this case with the people living in II Chundrigar House and Rimpa Twin Star apartments.

But despite the slow genesis of this project, there is an understanding that our choices are limited. “Something has to be done about the Mehran Hotel intersection either way,” said Masroor. In the long run there is no avoiding it.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.