More then 2 dozen people lost their lives because of callousness of the planners and failure in their co-ordination, who claim that Karachi will soon be a city of luxurious living. This rhetoric was dinned in our ears by ex-City Nazim and now the energetic new City Nazim, whose all promises were washed away in rains.
Most of the roads, which were dug up for re-carpeting for months were the major cause of city life becoming paralysed. The hub of financial business, Chundrigar Road, which was funded by some corporate organisations and was given to a very high-powered committee to covert it into a most modern road, the only aim of which was to close the road to public carriers in February 2006 and till date nothing has been done, except causing difficulties to the visitors who have no other choice than to visit the road for business.
It was partially submerged and on one side entire track had caved in and had to be closed for traffic because there was a danger of other parts of the road collapsing, which had developed big ditches due to accumulation of rain water for days.
Uptill Monday Karachi had received only 3 inches rain while its almost all arteries were submerged. The famous KPT underpass at Schon Circle in Clifton constructed at a cost of Rs 18 crores, had become more than 10 feet deep pool for youngsters to play water games and thanked KPT uncles for providing this opportunity to them.
Architects and concerned citizens have already pointed out certain design flaws in the underpass rendering it particularly vulnerable to the rain due to obstruction to Neher-e-Khayam, which is a natural passage for rain water to pass from Clifton bridge onwards, which has been obstructed.
Karachi's major thoroughfares leading to commercial centres have submerged, the major roads in Defence and Clifton are under knee-deep water, broken roads with total failure of utility services was haunting the poor and the stranded people in traffic jams.
Simple dewatering system was not operating, while we have KWSB, CCB and on top of it the DHA, as they have not visualised the need for equipping their pumping stations with alternate standby power generating sources.
Along with the new construction of flyovers and underpasses, the old ones should not be neglected (in spite of the fact that they were made by some other people and they carry plaques of different party members) because they are supposed to cater to the needs of general public.
The flaws in these constructions (of which there are innumerable) must be removed to make them safe and comfortable. While going towards the airport if one wants to turn left on to Rashid Minhas Road in front of Drigh Road Railway Station, the turn is very acute and the road banking is in the opposite direction resulting in a number of accidents.
It is quite evident that no thought was given to this turn at the planning stage and whatever has been made now is obviously an afterthought. Similarly the traffic coming from the airport is complicated by the presence of a bus stop on the left side of the road.
The buses pick and drop the passengers and immediately turn right to come on the flyover blocking all the traffic proceeding towards the Nursery side. This place has been the scene of many accidents. This glaring fault must be removed.
The traffic from Shahrah-i-Faisal going to Jacob Line area has no direct access and has to go to Kalapul traffic lights to turn back and use the flyover to proceed to that area. This manoeuvre causes a lot of congestion at the Kalapul traffic lights. This could have been also avoided by providing a proper passage as part of the main flyover.
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