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AUGUST
2009
ISSUES:
Quarterly
report on accidents
Over
300 killed, 1,300 maimed on roads
More
than 300 people lost their lives in road accidents in the city during
the first three months of the year, which is 15 per cent higher than
last year’s corresponding period.
The road traffic injury research and prevention centre working at the
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in its quarterly report cited public
unawareness, lack of pedestrian bridges at sensitive crossings and
serious violations of traffic rules mostly by commercial transport for
the accidents.
Based on the facts and figures of accidents reported at the city’s
trauma centres between Jan 1 and March 31 this year, the report stated
that 304 people died in the accidents and 1,377 people received serious
injuries, becoming almost paralysed for life.
Injury status of the casualties was assessed on the international injury
scaling system of the Abbreviated Injury Score (AIS) and the Revised
Trauma Score (RTS) and graded accordingly by the research assistants.
“Of the total 304 fatalities, 48 per cent were pedestrians, 30 per
cent motorcycle riders, 16 per cent passengers and four per cent
drivers.”
This year, the number of deaths of pedestrians rose by 40 per cent and
passengers by 33 per cent while the fatal accidents of drivers and
motorcycle riders rose by three and 10 per cent respectively.
Since the demographics, time, location, vehicles involved and immediate
causes of accidents were collated along with 15 other specifications
while compiling the report, the researchers clearly mentioned a few of
the most vulnerable roads in the city for accidents involving
pedestrians. Unavailability of the required infrastructure was a major
cause of accidents in these areas, they pointed out.
Mauripur Road: a death trap
The report states, “The most vulnerable is Mauripur Road, which
urgently needs provision of pedestrian facilities. Among all urban
arteries of Karachi, Mauripur tops with (a ratio of) eight fatalities
per kilometre. In 2008 alone, 38 people died in accidents on this road.”
The researchers suggested that the entire Mauripur Road, which is one of
the city’s busiest roads, be properly fenced to discourage jaywalkers
from crossing it along with installation of overhead bridges. It was
found that ill-maintained footpaths and open manholes on the
thoroughfare had also made this road a death trap.
When the relevant departments were approached for their versions on the
installation of pedestrian bridges on the road, the city government and
the National Highway Authority were found to be at odds over the area of
responsibility. While the dispute over the remit has halted the
infrastructure’s development, pedestrians continue to be the main
victims of accidents on Mauripur Road.
Referring to last year’s data of casualties caused by road accidents,
a source said that 60 per cent of the fatalities on Mauripur Road
involved pedestrians. Poor maintenance and absence of street-lights was
also found to be one of the major causes of road accidents, as 25 per
cent of victims met accidents in the dark.
(By
Imran Ayub, Daily Dawn, 27/07/2009)
50
CNG buses on two routes launched
Sindh
Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan inaugurated on Monday a CNG bus project,
saying that it was a gift for the citizens of Karachi and would ease
their transport and pollution problems.
In the first phase, the city government will run 50 CNG-powered buses on
two different routes – originating from Surjani Town to Tower and to
Korangi and back.
“CNG buses were brought on the roads of Karachi in the past, too, but
the latest fleet comprises the dedicated CNG buses and will certainly
lead the project to success,” Dr Ibad said while speaking at the
inauguration. He said the CDGK during the last four years had served all
sections of the population, and City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal and his
team deserved praise for it. “Karachi is the most important part of
the country and the city nazim has ensured with his utmost dedication
that the city keep the wheels moving,” he added. After unveiling a
plaque at a CNG bus terminal in Surjani Town, the governor inspected the
facility and buses and also travelled with the city nazim for three
kilometres by getting e-tickets.
In his speech, Syed Mustafa Kamal blamed the bureaucracy for the absence
of a mass-transit system in Karachi. He appealed to President Asif Ali
Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to take to task the
bureaucracy for its failure to introduce the system, and help stop
bureaucrats from creating impediments in the city’s development
projects.
The nazim said the CNG bus project was funded by the city government.
“We have spent Rs250 million on the purchase of these CNG buses while
we have also allocated funds for the purchase of another fleet of 100
buses in the next budget,” he said.
(Daily
Dawn, 28/07/2009)
Light
Train Transport project not feasible for Karachi
The Karachi Light Train Transport (LTT) project (from Sohrab Goth to
Tower) will not be feasible for Karachi due its high costs, limited
expectations of use and its failure in other countries, experts have
said. The government, meanwhile, has been working to expedite the first
phase of the project.
Official sources told The News that the federal government had recently
sought a progress report and implementation status of the LTT, which was
being pursued by the Sindh government through the transport department.
They said that the Sindh Planning and Development Department had written
to the federal government recently to consider providing a “sovereign
guarantee” for pursuing international competitive bids for the project
on a Build-Operate-Own (BOO) basis.
A meeting, chaired by the Sindh additional chief secretary Sindh, also
decided to involve the Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF)
of the federal government to seek their views for processing the project
further, and finding donor support. A representative of the City
District Government Karachi (CDGK) informed the participants of the
meeting that they were also considering a call for Expression of
Interest (EoI) in the matter. Another meeting between officials of the
provincial government and the CDGK was held recently, in which the
Karachi Mass Transit Cell official said that the IPDF has been requested
to provide a “transition advisor” for the preparation of documents
and feasibility reports to facilitate international investors for the
implementation of the project.
Meanwhile, Dr Noman Ahmed, chairman of the department of architecture
and planning at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, said
that many complications are involved in an elevated LTT. He said that it
would require massive investment and its utility would be limited.
Experience in Manila and Kuala Lumpur had revealed that its fare would
also be high. He was of the opinion that on account of these reasons,
the LTT might “become a liability for the government”.
Buses will be more feasible instead, Dr Ahmed said. He recalled that
City Nazim Mustafa Kamal had announced that 8,000 buses would be
imported to address traffic problems. Subsequently, it was stated that
some buses would be assembled and manufactured here but so far, progress
on the project was slow, he said.
Dr Ahmed said that the government should take into consideration the
transportation problem of white-collar workers. He said that there were
an estimated one million bike-riders in the city and if they were
provided better alternative for their work commutes, they would prefer
it. He said that traffic problems would be reduced greatly if the
government focuses on University Road, SITE and Korangi Road.
(By
Imtiaz Ali, The News, 29/07/2009)
Karachi
Circular Railway (KCR) Revival Plans
An inordinate delay to revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) has
started facilitating a surge of encroachment along the tracks of the KCR
in the hope of creating a stake in an imminent relocation of the
settlements as per the much-awaited Resettlement Action Plan, sources
told The News.
As Karachi Urban Transport Company (KUTC), being the proponent of KCR
project has been given a go ahead after hearing the public comments on
its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report. However, the KUTC has
yet to finalise its Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) to start clearing out
the KCR’s right of way.
According to the KCR EIA report, revival of KCR project will directly
affect 36,000 to 42,000 people in terms of resettlement and relocation.
This is to be undertaken by KUTC as per the Land Acquisition Act of
1894, but the delayed process raised fears of swelling settlement.
Residents of slum-like neighbourhoods, along the main railway tracks
within the proximity of Baloch Colony, say the fear of relocation of
households also casts its effect on construction and property sale and
rent. “Surely some of the residents are simply raising their stake by
grabbing more land here and there,” says a retired railway man.
As per the project’s blueprint in circulation, the total length of the
KCR is approximately 50 km, including 30 km of circular section, 14 km
of Pakistan Railways’ main railroad and the proposed 6 km extension
connecting Drigh Road to Jinnah Terminal.
The KCR officials say this new section of KCR route as proposed for
airport link covers a number of structures, which need to be removed and
occupancy requires appropriate considerations for relocation. The track
entering Jinnah International Airport premises is said to be least
encroached upon KCR site.
A survey conducted by Urban Resource Centre (URC) in 2005 reveals that
the 72 per cent of the area on either side of the KCR tracks is occupied
by commercial plazas, multi-storied residential apartments, bungalows,
institutional buildings, shopping centres, factories, warehouses and
petrol pumps.
The remaining 28 per cent of the area on either side of the KCR tracks
is occupied by low-income settlements and Katchi Abadis. Along the
mainline from City to Landhi stations, the built-up areas are at an
average distance of about 20 to 60 feet from the tracks. Along the
circular tracks the distance is from 15 to 40 feet.
According to KUTC officials, the study for the required RAP of the KCR
project is a prerequisite for Japan International Cooperation Agency’s
consideration of the loan in accordance with its guidelines for
confirmation of environmental and social consideration. This
prerequisite also needs to be in line with the existing environmental
laws.
The KCR officials are working out the satellite imaging technologies to
determine the exact settlements that come to the right of way or the
distance from the tracks to the built-up area. “We have started
working on RAP to expedite the long over-due take-off, but it will take
its due course,” says a top railway official.
Civil society activists say KCR has so far been advertised without
labeling a unified right of way, which they deem as prime source of
problem as far as an inevitable resettlement is concerned. They demand
standard demarcation of the right of way as double standards with regard
to varying length of the right of way would create more problems.
“Global image systems and map digitising techniques were employed to
count the numbers of squatter settlements along the KCR route existing
on the railway land,” says the EIA report. “It was estimated that
above 6,000 household are settled as encroachers.”
Rana Sadiq of All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis, who has been
voluntarily collaborating with URC on details of the KCR project, says
if the survey conducted and reported by the divisional superintendent of
Pakistan Railway Karachi in 2003 is any lead, then the estimated number
of would-be-affected houses will be more than 15,000.
Citing a survey conducted by Citizens’ Forum on KCR, Sadiq said the
appropriate distance from the tracks to the built-up area should be
between 25 and 30 feet. “We need to know the exact range of the right
of way followed by census of the houses to be affected by the KCR
project,” he maintains.
(By
Asadullah, The News, 04/08/2009)
Experts
denounce ‘neo-liberal’ development of city
Karachi
has gone from being a poor-friendly city to one subservient to the
demands of the market and global capital. If this trend continues, the
rich-poor divide in the metropolis will grow, resulting in the further
ghettoisation of the city and increasing instability.
Renowned architect and planner Arif Hasan said this on Wednesday while
delivering the keynote address at a seminar titled ‘Karachi our
city: visioning for an urban revolution’. The seminar — held at
the NED’s city campus — was organised by the NED University of
Engineering and Technology and Shehri-CBE, a non-governmental
organisation.
“The Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 (KSDP 2020) is
based on the needs of the market economy and attracting
foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as devolution and mega-projects,”
said Mr Hasan, as he discussed the various development
plans prepared for Karachi — before and after partition — along
with KSDP 2020, the current master plan.
“Devolution has been promoted to allow cities the freedom to
borrow. The planning paradigm has changed. It is fuelled by global
capital,” he added. The senior planner observed that though
public-private partnerships were gaining currency, “the public is
completely subservient to the private”. He said that in 2005-06, banks
had lent around $1.5 billion for car loans; this money, he said, could
have been used to build a massive number of proper housing units.
Arif Hasan termed this the “neo-liberal urban development
paradigm”. He said the city’s planners wanted to build a “world-class
city; however, there was no clear definition of what a “world-class
city” was. He said symbols of the new development regime included
iconic architecture, such as the city’s KPT Fountain, while a city had
to be “branded” and host signature events.
Other symbols of this new order, he noted, were flyovers, high-rises and
malls, termed “investment-friendly infrastructure”. Arif Hasan said
that “projects have replaced planning”, adding that global capital
had been desperately looking for a home and was very comfortable
thriving in states like Pakistan, which had weak law
enforcement.
“The repercussions of this are that the rich-poor divide will [widen]
while there will be an increase in gated communities, a removal of
hawkers and the closing of multi-class public space. Karachi cannot
grow anymore. Planning should respect ecology and the natural
environment.” At the outset of his lecture, Mr Hasan said that
though Karachi was one of the best planned cities in south and
south-east Asia — better planned than Mumbai or Phnom Penh —
this would not be the case in five to six years. He said that
planning was fundamentally a political act determined on the basis of
ideology or compromise between powerful interest groups. He termed the
Karachi Master Plan 1975-1985 “a very comprehensive plan”.
Supervised by the United Nations, it could not be implemented and was
not given legal cover. As a result, the informal sector and
mafias expanded. All work on the plan was stopped in 1979, apart from
bulk water and roads’ projects.
“If the plan had been implemented we would have been living in a
different city.”
‘Citizens not heard:’ Earlier, Shehri general-secretary Amber
Alibhai delivered the welcome address. She said that as people’s
opinion had not been honoured in the planning stage, litigation resulted
over various projects and developments. “The city managers do not take
the people’s right to know seriously. Why are citizens not taken on
board during the decision making process?”
Urban planner and Shehri member Farhan Anwar, while defining the
objectives of the seminar, said that Karachi was a very decentralised
city, controlled by over 20 civic agencies. “Where does the common
citizen stand in the whole process? Who is benefiting and who is losing
out?” He said that though Karachi had seen several planning
interventions before and after partition, the process failed because of
an absence of continuity, absence of implementing and financing
mechanisms, lack of a political mandate and lack of stakeholder
consultation.
‘Projects keep popping up’ : “Projects keep popping up, but do
they fit in logically according [to a plan]? They happen all over the
place. Why are master plans never given legal sanction? Do we want to
promote ad-hocism?” he asked.
Mr Anwar said policies and plans served special interest groups,
targeted short-term gains and had a narrow focus rather than a holistic
urban outlook. He also pointed out that legislation specific to the
needs of cities was required. In his concluding remarks, Dr Noman
Ahmed, chairman of the NED’s department of architecture and planning,
said that planning was a continuous process and that without a planning
agency, proper development would be very difficult. He also observed
that the city would continue to face difficulties until the issue of
local bodies was settled.
(By
Qasim A. Moini, Daily Dawn, 20/08/2009)
Development:
The urbanisation challenge
Cities
are expanding across the developing world. However, the lack of a
comprehensive vision, as well as governance and planning weaknesses,
accompanied by inadequate investment in urban development, has resulted
in making this urbanisation process become quite uncontrolled.
The implications of the resulting haphazardness are very clear in our
own country, where common citizens face seriously inadequate
infrastructure (water, sewerage, solid waste management, roads and
transport) and social services (health, education). It is not only poor
infrastructural and social services deficiencies that people in our
cities have to face. Poor environmental conditions, including air, water
and soil pollution, and over-crowded and poorly laid-out housing areas,
are also a common sight.
It is thus not surprising why streets in most of our cities are so
littered with waste, the drains are overflowing with sewage, and that
low-lying communities are inundated by rainwater each monsoon season.
Then there is also the problem of violent urban crime, which keeps
escalating, and growing traffic congestion, which has even made being
out on the road a nightmarish experience.
Entities do exist within the country with the mandate to manage the
urbanisation process in Pakistan. The Planning Commission is the lead
agency responsible for urban planning, yet it has unfortunately been
unable to provide a holistic agenda for urban development in the
numerous annual plans that it has prepared. Instead, urban planning has
been attempted using a piecemeal approach so that related problems like
housing, transport and infrastructure development are tackled
independently.
Recently, the Planning Commission issued a notification for the
formulation of a National Spatial Strategy, which is meant to be
completed within the coming year, and is expected to greatly enhance
coordination between the various ministries responsible for urban
development.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s Vision 2030 policy paper has also
recognised the potential for our larger metropolitan areas to become
major contributors towards national growth. This visionary document,
however, provides more of a wish-list rather than articulating how
larger metropolitan areas can be turned into ‘engines of growth’.
For instance, private sector participation has also been emphasised but
the vision of garnering private sector investment remains unutilised
given the existing legal and regulatory frameworks and distorted
incentives for private sector participation. The advent of devolution
reform in 2001 did lead to the creation of city district governments for
metropolises and transfer of urban services to tehsil municipal
administrations. However, the experience of devolution was mixed as
provincial governments refused to accept and own the reform imposed from
above. Thus the provincial appropriation of local functions, especially
those related to erstwhile public health and engineering departments,
meant that local governments remained powerless to decide on local
planning and development priorities, especially in the towns and cities.
Since the election of new federal and provincial governments in 2008,
local government laws are being amended to reverse local government
reforms, the implications of which on urban planning as yet remain
unclear.
One thing is for certain, however. Increasing poverty has accompanied
the process of urbanisation in our country, which is typical of
developing countries with high rural-to-urban migration being fuelled by
the lag in the national economy’s capacity to absorb the growing
population of workers. In Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan and one
of the largest in the world, more than half the population lives in
informal, high density, environmentally degraded katchi abadis or slum
areas. An estimated 89 percent of this katchi abadi population lives
below the poverty line.
Urban housing has been one of the largest identified problems in our
major cities yet many prior efforts to address this problem have
remained unsuccessful. Housing schemes targeting lower income households
have in most cases been hijacked by real estate developers for
speculation purposes instead.
It is important for planning entities to realise that the urbanisation
process in Pakistan is not uniform, and thus requires flexible policies.
Consider for instance the fact that there are over forty ‘urban’
places in Punjab. Migration is not a major issue around these areas,
which is different from the situation in the other provinces, where the
number of cities is much smaller in comparison to the rural areas. The
urban triangle of Faisalabad, Gunjranwala, Sheikhupura, and Lahore in
particular comprises 30 million people, and forms a potential growth
pole, or what has been referred to as an ‘engine of growth’ in
Pakistan’s Vision 2030. But realising this potential perhaps requires
joint planning committees for this region, an issue which has not yet
received much attention by urban policy makers.
Government urban planners also need to understand that the large
metropolitan areas cannot be managed in ways that the smaller towns are
managed. Mega-cities like Karachi or Lahore in particular need an
integrated urban management approach. Within this integrated approach,
the visible imbalance in the urban landscape also needs to be corrected
even if it is at the cost of the perpetual efforts of bettering
infrastructure largely around regions of elite interest, such as the
suburban communities bordering Karachi and Lahore.
Ethnic fragmentation in urban contexts can also hinder the potential of
growth as well. It would be hard to refute the fact that political and
ethnic violence in Karachi for instance has seriously exacerbated
poverty and structural forms of ethnic violence. Over the next 25 years,
the urban population in Pakistan is projected to increase by almost 140
percent. This dramatic increase implies that nearly 130 million people
will be living in cities. For once at least, it would be good to see our
policy making institutions being proactive instead of reactive in terms
of contending with this looming, massive challenge. The enhancement of
urban planning capacity at the federal, provincial and municipal
government levels is an immediate requirement. Else the current
appalling state of most urban centres will continue to worsen.
(Syed
Muhammad Ali, DailyTimes, 28/07/2009)
Kamal
orders channelisation of Gujjar Nullah
The
City Nazim Mustafa Kamal directed the City District Government
Karachi's (CDGK) Works and Services Department and Municipal Services
Department to start channelisation of 13.5 kilometres long Gujjar Nullah
with the removal of encroachments.
These orders were issued in a meeting, which was chaired by Kamal and it
was decided to launch anti-encroachment operation at one of the city's
main storm-water drain Gujjar Nullah. DCO Karachi Javed Hanif, Town
Nazims, EDO Revenue Sajjad Abbasi and other officers attended the
meeting.
The project that has an estimated cost of Rs 2.7 billion would include
the construction of 24-feet wide service road on either side of the
nullah. Engineer Sajid Usmani has been appointed as the project director
for this job. Addressing the meeting, Kamal said that the encroachments
have choked the Gujjar Nullah by 80 percent due to which it has been
narrowed. The remaining space does not have the required capacity for
draining the heavy flow of the storm-water. Also the entry from any site
of the Gujjar Nullah has been completely blocked, which has impeded the
use of heavy de-silting machinery in the nullah.
He said that the adjoining five towns of the nullah were affected most
during the recent rains. After the nullah failed to contain the
storm-water, it had flooded the roads while the overflowing caused
accumulation of storm-water in adjoining areas. The entire situation has
prevented the CDGK's storm-water drain system for draining out the
storm-water during the recent rains, which also posed a threat to the
installations of infrastructure and underpasses. Owing to that untoward
situation, millions of residents have suffered unexpected discomfort, he
explained.
In order to provide relief to the people it has become unavoidable to
focus on removal of encroachments so that the actual width of the Gujjar
Nullah could be re-gained and to start the channelisation and
construction of 24-feet wide road on both sides of the nullah on
preferential basis. After the removal of encroachments the
storm-water drainage system of the Lyari
Expressway would be expanded, said Kamal.
(By
Irfan Aligi, Daily Times, 18/08/2009)
Mohammadi
Colony residents makes history
Mohammadi Colony, popularly known as Machar Colony, has made
history as its residents have arranged water for some 2,500 households
on a self-help basis.
With an estimated population of some 700,000 people covering an area of
four square kilometres, Mohammadi Colony comprises Pashtuns, Bengalis,
Sindhis, Baloch, Mohajirs, Katchis and Memons with the predominant
population being Pashtuns and Bengalis.
The residents are either involved in fisheries or work as labourers in
shipyard, dockyard and nearby industrial units. “There are about
14,000 households in this colony and we always have an acute
shortage of water. When we were convinced that the authorities are not
ready to listen to us we decided to solve problems on our own,” said
Farhad Ali Mughal, President, Tanzeem-e-Awami Behbud (Organisation for
People’s Welfare).
“Indus Earth, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) helped us in
conducting a survey. We collected Rs350 from every household, got our
survey approved from the Town Nazim and laid a pipeline of 2,600 feet.
Today, 2,500 households are benefiting from the pipeline,” said Mughal.
Speaking about the bureaucratic hurdles, Mughal told The News that
though the Town Nazim had provided the pipeline, it took almost four
years to actually install it.
“Every political leader who contested elections from this
area vowed to bring water but never fulfilled his promise,” Mughal,
also Chief Organiser of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTA), Keamari
Town, said.
Twenty-five per cent of the population has access to potable water while
others get it through the water mafia, said Ahsan Mohammad, another
resident of Mohammadi Colony. “Water is supplied to 75 per cent
residents by this mafia which charges Rs200 for an hour’s worth of
supply,” he said.
“The people are ready to pay the bills but the Karachi Water &
Sewerage Board [KWSB] is not ready to listen to our grievances,” he
added.
Water scarcity isn’t the only problem that Mohammadi Colony is
faced with. Though the colony has eight primary government schools,
still the enrolment level remains low because teachers do not attend
classes. “We are far behind because our people are not educated,”
Mughal said. “We are running a dispensary, the only healthcare
facility available here. There is no maternity home although there are
some lady health workers here,” he said.
The poor residents are also threatened by flooding every year
because Lyari River enters the sea from this area. “I have
been a councillor in the City Council and have pleaded many a time that
a boundary wall should be constructed to save the colony from
gushing rainwater during the monsoons but the authorities have never
paid heed. People have drowned many a time,” said Sharafat Khan, 75, a
resident of Mohammadi Colony.
(By
Shahid Husain, The News, 20/08/2009)
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