KARACHI, Oct 7: A much-awaited intercity bus terminal project, to be built along the Super Highway, has again hit a snag as some influential encroachers have occupied the land reserved for it by the city government.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that several graves mysteriously appeared on the land during the past some weeks and it seemed that the entire 15-acre land, which was in the city government’s possession, would soon turn into a graveyard along with a residential compound.

The sources said that the intercity bus terminal was to be built on 45 acres of land in Deh Bitti Amri near the Super Highway but the project could not materialise because land-grabbers had encroached upon 30 acres of the land and the city government was left with 15 acres only.

The 45-acre land had been allocated to the defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 1995 for the development of an intercity bus terminal so that illegal bus terminals in different parts of the city could be removed.

However, some influential land-grabbers encroached upon the entire land by building unauthorised structures on it. Later, the city government managed to retrieve 15 acres, followed by the groundbreaking of the project performed by the former nazim, Niamatullah Khan. Since the intercity bus terminal could not be constructed on merely 15 acres, Mr Khan announced that encroachments on the remaining 30-acre land would be razed to make way for the project.

Since then neither Mr Khan nor the present nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, have been able to get the land vacated. Subsequently, implementation of the project has encountered difficulties.

To protect the 15-acre land from further encroachment, the city government had built a boundary wall around it, though a number of graves emerged on it mysteriously in the recent past, sources said.

“It would be very difficult for us to check the authenticity of the graves that have emerged on our land … it would create a law and order situation,” an official said.

“The encroached can only be vacated through a grand operation. The city government cannot do it alone,” he said, adding that the provincial government had already been approached in this regard.

The sources said the graves belonged to the illegal occupants of the 30-acre land, who enjoyed full support of the powerful land mafia, and their move was apparently aimed at asserting their claim on the newly encroached land.

When the Executive District Officer (Transport and Communication), Malik Zaheerul Islam, was approached on the issue, he said that encroachment was the only main hurdle in implementation of the intercity bus terminal project at the Super Highway.

However, he could not give any time-frame regarding the execution of the project.

The city government had identified spots near the RCD Highway, National Highway and the Super Highway for building three bus terminals to ease traffic congestion on various roads of the city. Out of these three intercity bus terminals, the city government has completed only one, the terminal located at Yousuf Goth near the RCD Highway.