Build in haste, repent at leisure

The Nusrat Bhutto Underpass may have been completed in record time, but construction issues still abound

KARACHI:

With much fanfare, the Sindh government inaugurated the Nusrat Bhutto Underpass near the Mehran hotel on Friday, August 28, repeatedly boasting about completing the project in record time, without halting the traffic on main Sharae Faisal throughout the construction. 

A week after the underpass was opened for the public, however, one of its tracks was closed, apparently due to water seepage. When The Express Tribune visited the underpass, the track coming from the Cantt Station was barricaded for traffic. There was a large pool of water on the closed track and small pool on the running track.

Read: Infrastructure: Underpass planned to link Sharae Faisal, Lucky Star

When the long-time Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) project director, Khalid Masroor, was contacted, he said one track was closed because they were working on its road surface. Masroor took credit for completing the project within the stipulated time, delivering on the promise he had made in March to complete the work within four months without clogging traffic along Sharae Faisal.

According to him, the overall construction of the underpass is complete and they are just working on the final road surface. He said that this was a lengthy process, which could take a lot of time. "Traffic is running smoothly on one track," he said, adding that once the closed track was opened, work on the opposite track would begin.

On the other hand, another official on the site, speaking to The Express Tribune, claimed that one of the tracks was closed to be cleaned, which would only take a day or two. He also said that the service track was being constructed and work for the beautfication of the underpass was underway, due to which the track has been closed.

The official admitted that issues of subsoil water were initially present on the site after the construction of the underpass, which were later resolved.

Expert opinion

Chairperson of NED University's department of architecture and planning, Prof Dr Noman Ahmed, said that before the excavation process for any underpass, the water supply pipes, sewerage pipes, rain drainage lines, gas distribution lines and fiber and electricity optics lines have to be checked. "From where they are passing through and where exactly they could overlap the underpass must be checked," he explained.

He went on to say that the agencies concerned were asked to relocate the utility lines, for which the construction agency usually bore the cost. "After the alternative distribution of these utility lines the excavation is started," he said and added that the final phase of the relocation of the utility lines was tested through different experiments. "The performance of all these lines in new locations is tested," he explained. "In drainage lines water is artificially pumped to check its performance."

Read: New underpass to ease traffic flow on Sharae Faisal

However, in Pakistan, in order to avail the credit of completing the project on time such experiments are usually circumvented and there is no monitoring body to keep an eye on the construction process, he said.

Dr Ahmed said that if the water seepage was due to the alteration of sewerage lines, it could be rectified. "However, if there is a fault in the construction adjustment's basic design, it could linger on," he warned. For that, he said utility pipes may have to be passed in other directions.

Meanwhile, the Karachi commissioner, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, said he had no knowledge of the blockage of one of the underpass tracks. He said that if that was the case stern action would be taken against the contractor and KMC engineer. "They will be penalised," he assured.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2015.