Speakers at a seminar here have pointed out that lack of co-ordination among various land-owing agencies is a big impediment in carrying out the development process smoothly in Karachi.
The seminar on " Emerging Challenges: The Struggle for a Bright Future" was organised by Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers of North America (APSENA) on Tuesday.
Speakers said that unless the linkages among these agencies would not be strengthened, the bottlenecks would come in the way.
City Nazim Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal, chairing a session, cited the problems of ground utilities in the way of development works in Karachi. "Korangi Industrial Area is a big industrial area of Pakistan, which contributes Rs 280 million to the government exchequer daily, but it has no proper water and sewerage system," he deplored.
Mustafa Kamal, however, said that a project has been devised to lay the water and sewerage network in Korangi Industrial Area and work is expected to start in next few weeks.
"Also, to give the city a pleasant and beautiful look, heavy machinery is being procured to dispose of the garbage and other wastes," he said.
MAJOR ISSUE: However, he pointed out that a major issue in this regard is human resource, for which work is under way to privatise all the departments of the city government related to sewerage system. Besides, cleaning work would be carried out during the night to avoid any traffic congestion in the metropolis.
Chief Executive Officer Engineering Consultant International Naveed Zaheer said: "To have a master plan for 2020, is a big challenge for Karachi because despite having the legislation in this regard, some issues are needed to be sorted out."
He called for strengthening the co-ordination among 13 land-owing agencies of the city for proper development of the city.
EDUCATION SYSTEM: Earlier, inaugurating the seminar, chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr Attaur Rahman spoke on the education system of the country and efforts being made to improve the educational standard at higher education level in the changing scenario of tough competition.
"Emphasis is being laid to promote the creative work at universities as the job of the universities is not only transfer the knowledge but also to do something innovative," he added.
Chairman HEC also told the audience about the linkages, being created between local universities and universities of other countries so that the local ones could know about the latest developments in the international education scenario.
President APSENA Farrukh Hussain, renowned planner Arif Hassan and others also spoke.