KARACHI, Aug 26: The Askari Park, inaugurated by President General Pervez Musharraf here on Friday has many state-of-the-art features. Giving details of its salient features, Brigadier Junaid, who spearheaded the engineers associated with the construction and development of the park, explained various components, designing and future development works.

The main components of the park include two main gateways with green areas, a main walkway, a 700-metre-long jogging track, a 34-feet-high arch waterfall, a 25-feet-dia skating ring, a courtyard, a botanical garden, a portion exclusively for women, and four public facility areas.

The total area of the park is 38 acres, out of which 21 acres has been covered. Of this area, 15-acre land has been developed into green areas, 3.85-acre has paths and 4.1-acre land has various structures.

“We fully concentrated on construction which was started on October 25 and got the first phase completed within five months,” Brig Junaid said, putting the estimated cost of the project at Rs200 million. He indicated that the cost of development in the first phase was Rs96 million.

He informed the president that an estimated 70,000 gallons of water was required for green areas, fountains and general purposes. To meet the requirement, the park’s own sewerage treatment plant, having a capacity of 100,000 gallons per day, had been installed. Besides, four reverse osmosis plants for pure water having a capacity of 30,000 gallons and water supply connection for 5,000 gallons per day from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board had been acquired.

In order to store this water, an underground water tank having a capacity of 500,000 gallons has been constructed within the vicinity of the park.

For power supply, a 300kv connection has been obtained from KESC on a payment basis and a 150kv generator for use in emergency has been made available at the park. There are 500 power connections in the park with approximately 20kms of underground cables running in different directions.

A fully automated irrigation system, with 201 sprinklers, has been installed. About six kilometres of water supply lines have been laid to irrigate the green areas and plantation.

A 15-acre area has been landscaped with greenery and plantation. There are 27,000 plants of 164 varieties across the park.

During development work, around 1.3 million cubic feet of rocks and boulders was removed to level the area. Subsequently, one million cubic feet of sweet earth was spread in the park for development of green area.

The share of the city district government in the estimated cost, i.e. Rs96 million, of phase-I is Rs63 million and that of the 5-Corps is Rs23 million.

Among the major expenditures were Rs40 million on structures, Rs24 million on development of green areas and plantation, Rs21 million on irrigation system and water supply, Rs12 million on electricity and Rs4 million on excavation and earth-filling.

Regarding future development, Brig Junaid said that the construction of a modern ‘food court’ in the park was under way and would be completed in 11 months at a cost of Rs60 million.

He said that a children’s activity area would be developed on the land outside and adjacent to the park in the second phase.

He said an estimated amount of Rs30 million would be spent on setting up a petrol pump outside the park for which formalities had been completed and work was likely to commence on September 30.—APP