KARACHI | Progress News & Updates

[siamu maharaj]

$2.5 billion for circular railway. What a joke.

[Red aRRow]

Some politician is about to get richer

[khalid-don]

Originally Posted by bablo124

Truckers delight: Three modern truck terminals planned

Three new truck terminals are being planned on the outskirts of Karachi to ease the flow of traffic in the city.
The terminals equipped with all modern trucking facilities will be built by the Sindh Transport Department at a cost of Rs22 billion. The project will be funded by local and foreign firms, including the provision of land for the three terminals. They will be named Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Truck Terminals, sources in the transport department told The Express Tribune.
One truck stop each will be constructed along all the three major highways of Karachi: the National Highway, the Super Highway and the Northern Bypass near the RCD Highway. The terminals would be spread over an area ranging between 250 acres and 400 acres. Each terminal will be equipped with modern security systems, including closed-circuit television cameras and vehicle tracking. The facility would also include offices, hotels, mosques, automobile workshops, hostels, auditoriums and cinemas. The truckers will be provided parking space and all other facilities to keep them away from parking their vehicles on the roads and illegal truck stands in Karachi, the sources said.
The parking areas of the terminal will be completed within three months while the whole project will take three years to complete.
“We are taking these initiatives to reduce the traffic pressure in Karachi and to provide a secure and peaceful environment to the truckers,” said Ali Nawaz Panhwar, the transport deputy secretary, while talking to The Express Tribune,
The project is awaiting the finalisation of the deal between the Sindh government and a private company, Integrated Consulting Services, which will fund the project. A committee has been formed, including representatives of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and provincial police, transport, home and law departments, to iron out the agreement.
All stakeholders, including transporters, are being taken into confidence regarding the project, Panhwar said.
The official was very optimistic about the project in terms of reducing the traffic problems of Karachi. Road jams in Karachi will reduce substantially as only those trucks will be allowed to enter Karachi that are to be loaded or unloaded, the rest will stay at the terminals, he said. According to Panhwar, the truck terminals will be Pakistan’s first to be built on international standards. The sponsoring companies will provide water, electricity and other civic facilities at the site and the truckers will be able to avail them on minimal daily charges.

Good step. I hate watching NATO supply trucks parked on local roads/ highway

[khalid-don]

Originally Posted by siamu maharaj

$2.5 billion for circular railway. What a joke.

That seems to be a lot of money isn't it ? Rather than renovating existing circular railway track they could have a proper metro with this much money

[siamu maharaj]

Originally Posted by Red aRRow

Some politician is about to get richer

Exactly. This should cost about $500m max.

[Metropole]

I think the large amount is because it's a full-fledged metro train line. I hope.

[brightside.]

Ha, we wish.

[siamu maharaj]

Originally Posted by Metropole

I think the large amount is because it's a full-fledged metro train line. I hope.

Bhai saab ko roza lag raha hai.

[Strong Hearted]

"Optimistic" , lets all be just like Metropole

[siamu maharaj]

That route actually isn't well-suited for a metro anyway. It is perfect for commuter rail, which is what circular railway is.

[brightside.]

I really don't see much utility in a train running in a circular path around the city. Make a proper metro FFS! Dubai's metro project cost is around 7 billion AFTER cost overruns. And this is possibly the best metro in the world in terms of how modern the stations and trains are. At $2.5 billion we can build at least half as good a metro system. Not to mention that Karachi has a lot more commuters, hence even if the cost goes up to $5 billion, they can break even much quicker.

[Red aRRow]

Believe me...this project is as dead as Zardari's conscience.

[bablo124]

Originally Posted by Metropole

I think the large amount is because it's a full-fledged metro train line. I hope.

the large amount goes to clear the encroachment and giving compensation to the people

[mwahmed]

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr

[OmI92]

Auction of shops in Shahabuddin Market next month

Karachi

Metropolitan Commissioner KMC Matanat Ali Khan has said that the balloting process for the auction of shops at under-construction Shahabuddin Market, Car Parking Plaza, will be started in the first week of September.

He was chairing a meeting at his office on Friday to review the construction work of Shahabuddin Market and make a schedule for the balloting procedure in this regard.

It may be noted here that 50 percent construction work at the Shahabuddin Market and the five-storey car parking plaza has been completed and the remaining work would be completed in next six months.

The meeting was attended by Senior Director Transport & Communication Muhammad Ather, Project Chief Engineer Syed Muhammad Taha, Superintendent Engineer Naveed Azhar and other officers concerned.

Matanat Khan said that the completion of this major civic project would not only solve the persistent car parking problem in the surrounding area but the prospective traders and shopkeepers would also get all the modern facilities for doing business.

Briefing the meeting, Project Director Muhammad Ather said that the construction work on the three floors of the project was in the final stages and other floors of the building would also be completed within the scheduled time.

The first phase of the project will be completed next month at a cost of Rs735 million after which 171 shopkeepers would be shifted to the lower ground floor of the building, and the 131 shops constructed on the ground floor will be auctioned through balloting process.

[OmI92]

DHA installs 120 security cameras

The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has said that it had installed 120 modern security cameras at all entry and exit points of the DHA for round-the-clock electronic surveillance of important spots of the posh neighborhood of the city.

The Administrator, DHA, Brigadier Aamir Raza Qureshi, disclosed this to a delegation of the Association of Defence Residents (ADR) who held the meeting with the former on civic-related issues of the Defence residents.

The DHA chief said that the project of electronic surveillance of the Defence area had been made operational while in the next phase another 250 similar security cameras would be installed at educational institutions, mosques and Imambargahs, public places and in some commercial areas in DHA.

The meeting was informed that the DHA in collaboration with the traffic police would start effective implementation of one-way traffic regime on Khayaban-e-Shamsheer in DHA from next month.

The DHA administrator said that DHA would also start work on the development of a graveyard in DHA Phase-VIII very soon to meet a demand of the residents of the area.

SECURITY FORCE PROPOSED: The Honorary General Secretary of the ADR, Asad Kizilbash, told The News that he had proposed to administrator DHA at the meeting that not just entry and exit points but that all streets of the DHA should be electronically covered through installation of such round-the-clock working security cameras.

He said that a proper and full-fledged security force could be raised for electronic and real on-the-ground surveillance and security of DHA and for the purpose the DHA, the area residents, and Clifton Cantonment should team up.

He said that a separate board of governors could be established for the proposed DHA security force and in it, the residents and Clifton Cantonment should be given due representation in addition to the DHA’s administration.

Kizilbash said that in the later stages the DHA residents could be taxed through the Clifton Cantonment Board, being the municipal agency of the area, for meeting expenses of such a proposed large security force.

However, the DHA residents would only be able to financially contribute to the cause, through new taxation, when they would be convinced that they had proper representation and say in security-related affairs of the DHA, added the ADR office-bearer.

[OmI92]

[siamu maharaj]

Shaeen Complex is such an odd place for a flyover.

[smfarazm..]

Karachi: Wind turbine installed at unknown 22 floor under construction building to provide power supply to it at I.I Chundrigar Road. (Photo by Sohail Rafiq The News)

[deltaone]

nice.


Breathing spaces: KMC plans to rebuild Aziz Bhatti Park lake

Karachi: He is in charge of the city now, which is why key bureaucrat Mohammad Hussain Syed can throw his weight behind a project to rebuild a lake in a park he once visited as a child.

“I used to come here often,” the city administrator mused during a visit on Tuesday. “It was such a beautiful place.”

There were also lakes in Jheel Park, Hill Park, Scheme 33 and Mai Kolachi. “None of them exist any more,” he noted.

The lake at Aziz Bhatti Park has turned into a pond of filth carpeted by bushes. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has decided to reconstruct it over three acres and add peddle boats to attract families.

A large bird aviary is also planned. “It will be as high 60 feet or maybe more. We will build it around the trees and have exotic birds living in a natural environment,” said the administrator.

Sobhraj Maternity Home

The administrator also visited Sobhraj Maternity Home, the government-run facility where a woman needs only Rs3,000 to pay for a delivery. The 200-bed hospital has been renovated and the addition of another building has made it possible to now admit over 400 women.

But there are a few snags, such as a proper power connection without which the new wards cannot start running. “Sent me a request for whatever is needed for the hospital,” Syed assured KMC officials. “We will sit together tomorrow to discuss the needs and allocate the funds.”

The new building has been constructed by the Feroza Hasham Trust.
A senior hospital official said they urgently needed an anaesthetist and were looking to offer laparascopic key-hole procedures too.

Zulfiqarabd Oil Terminal

Judging by the pace of work, it seems as if the residents of Clifton would have to wait for a couple more years to see an exit of the oil tankers parked at Dr Ziauddin Hospital and Marine Promenade.

Only sand and rocks and barren land exist as part of the 150-acre site for the new parking lot at Zulfiqarabad oil terminal. The KMC will spend Rs313 million on the terminal and around 1,800 tankers can be parked here once it’s completed.


Flyovers

Cities across the rest of the world are tearing them down, but the folks at the KMC say they will continue to build flyovers despite opposition from city planners. They insist that the concrete elevated corridors remain the best solution to traffic congestion.

“I know this is not the best way to address the problem,” admitted Syed as he oversaw work at the Airport Flyover. “But we had to do something. The wait in traffic jams is getting longer.”

The KMC is putting Rs1.5 billion into five flyovers that will take the total number of bridges to 49.

Urbanists have said time and again that Karachi’s traffic jams will persist as laying more asphalt and raising more overhead passes is not the solution. Mass transit is the only way to tackle it. The funds being poured into flyovers should go into an city rail link and a network of low-fare public buses.

“We have been hearing about mass transit projects for such a long time yet nothing has happened,” shrugged Syed. “Why should we waste time? We will go ahead with the flyovers.”


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Cities across the rest of the world are tearing them down WHAAa? don't think thats true. Why do our journalist insert their own opinions in an article.. why not ask professionals for comment..?