Jinnah flyover opens in 25 days

KARACHI: Ambulances will have a faster way to reach major hospitals after the Jinnah hospital flyover at Lucky Star opens for traffic in 25 days, announced city administrator Lala Fazlur Rehman on Saturday.

This flyover is important as it connects five hospitals including the National Institute for Cardio Vascular Diseases and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where patients are brought in an emergency, he said, while inspecting new projects under construction at Shahrah-i-Faisal Corridor IV. The work on the Tipu Sultan flyover has started and will be completed soon, Rehman promised, adding that the project costs Rs320 million and makes use of modern technology. He explained that the project was delayed due to some technical reasons but after the construction of an alternate road, work on the flyover is underway.

Rehman said that four pilings will be completed in a day and over 40 per cent of the work will be completed within 10 days, reducing the expected time of completion by one and a half months. Shahrah-i-Faisal would become signal-free from Keamari and Malir in the next five months as soon as the six flyovers, worth Rs3 billion, are completed, Rehman said, adding that the PAF Mehmoodabad flyover will be completed in two months at a cost of Rs420 million. The flyovers at Sharah-i- Faisal have been the subject of some controversy.

A nongovernmental organisation, Shehri, approached the Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal saying that no environment impact assessments had been conducted for the project. The tribunal approached the provincial government and the EIA was submitted to the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency by the city government. Now SEPA has to report to the tribunal by June 3. Meanwhile, EDO works and services said that the construction of the flyovers would be completed within five months.