Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah while presiding over a meeting on Thursday regarding preventive measures against monsoon rains and urban floods, decided to build a new storm water drain and rehabilitate the existing Mahran drain to save the residential areas like Saadi Town and other low-lying areas in the surroundings in Karachi.

The meeting was informed that the monsoon rains in Karachi and the rainwater flowing down from the mountains causes urban flooding. During the rains, the water coming from Lath Dam used to discharge into Malir River through the Mahran Storm Water Drain but the construction of M-9 Motorway, certain other residential projects over the natural waterway and KMC's failure to carry out timely cleaning of drain have created hurdles in its way resulting in urban floods during the monsoon rains every year.

In view of such a situation, the meeting decided to construct a new 3.5km long storm water drain and rehabilitate the existing Mahran Drain by removing illegal constructions and encroachments from its bed.

Chief Secretary directed the Deputy Commissioner Malir to demolish the illegal constructions and encroachments at Mahran Drain and constituted a Committee consisting of officials of Irrigation Department, KMC and Cantonment Board directing them to prepare a feasibility report and submit PC-I within 30 days in this regard.

When the meeting was informed that the K-Electric's KDA Grid Station was under threat of flooding during last monsoon rains, the Chief Secretary directed K-Electric authorities to formulate a plan for safety of its installations and share the same with Sindh government.

Chief Secretary also directed the concerned officers to write a letter to the National Highway Authority for widening the culverts at Motorway. The Deputy Commissioner of concerned district, representative of K-Electric, Director General Provincial Disaster Management Authority, officials of Irrigation Department and Army Engineering Corps attended the meeting.