KARACHI: Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar on Monday directed officials concerned to expedite work on the pending uplift projects of the previous year and complete them on priority basis.
No new works would began until the projects initiated last year are completed. An amount of Rs 250 million has been earmarked for road carpeting and repair and another Rs 250 million fixed for repair and maintenance of footpaths, sewerage lines, bridges and roundabouts of Karachi in the budget for fiscal year 2020-21.
Presiding over a meeting of Engineering Department to review progress on development works here, the Mayor asked Director General Works and Services and Chief Engineers to all districts to supervise works in their respective jurisdictions and ensure on time completion. "Top Standard material should be used in the projects for long lasting results," he added.
The Mayor directed officials concerned to complete fixing of tiles at underpasses at Nazimabad, Liaquatabad and Ghareebabad as the traffic flow was disturbed due to work. He said the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation is fixing sewerage issues in many areas before constructing the road despite the fact that it is not its responsibility but Karachi Water and Sewerage Board is mandated for the purpose.
"Millions of rupees spent on road construction would be gone in vain, if sewerage issues are not resolved," he said. He was of the view that cleanliness of 38 big drains of Karachi is in progress as the work is jointly being done by World Bank, Sindh government and KMC. The Mayor said that he himself is visiting on different sites and reviewing the cleanliness measures to expedite the work and achieve the target before next spell of rain.
"Our first priority is to open chocked points. The drains are full of garbage as they have not been cleaned since 2018," Akhtar added. He asked Senior Director Coordination Masood Alam and Senior Director Municipal Services Nauman Arshad to urge the contractors for increasing machinery so that the work could be completed on time.
The Mayor said that the KMC's Anti-Encroachment department removed encroachment from nullahs in New Karachi on Sunday and directed that the operation should be carried out in other parts of the city as well. He said that cleanliness of drains is not a permanent solution as the issue will persist until encroachment is removed from drains and boundary wall is established. He once again requested the people not to throw garbage in the drains and avoid encroaching them.
Akhtar said that uplift works of Rs 120 million would also be carried in different UCs.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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