KARACHI: The city witnessed a prolonged traffic mess on Saturday evening after a major pipeline burst in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and inundated the main University Road forcing motorists to take alternative routes that ultimately choked almost every thoroughfare and caused gridlock.

Officials said the pipeline of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board that supplied about 100 million gallons of water daily to the city burst near Aziz Bhatti Park in the afternoon.

Traffic police officials said that the traffic in the city was normal till 5pm and vehicles were moving with a slow pace on University Road even after the pipeline burst. It appeared that no immediate measures were taken to stop the water which eventually submerged a vast area and the main University Road in the next two hours.

The submerged University Road became unmotorable and the traffic police closed it from Hasan Square to NIPA for vehicular traffic.

“It was half an hour before sunset when the number of vehicles increased on roads and the situation started turning challenging for the traffic authorities,” said a spokesman for the traffic police. “Traffic was rerouted from University Road to alternative roads like Pir Sibghatullah Shah Rashidi Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Sharea Faisal and parts of Shahrah-i-Pakistan.”

Thousands of people travelling in public and private vehicles were stuck in the traffic mess for hours, as the situation led to multiple traffic jams even on Korangi Causeway, Qayyumabad, I.I. Chundrigar Road, etc.

The traffic police, the spokesman said, were constantly coordinating with the authorities concerned and extra personnel were deputed to guide motorists for alternative routes.

Repair work may take two days to complete

KWSB chief Misbahuddin Farid said that water supply to the city would remain affected for a couple of days till the damaged pipeline was repaired. “There will be a shortage of around 50-60 MGDs and the areas to be affected include Lyari, Sadder, Jamshed, Clifton, PECHS and adjoining areas.”

About the pipeline, he said: “It’s an 84-inch-dia pipeline that was laid in 1958…it was being repaired when some worn-out portion of the pipeline burst.”

He said that the staffers and equipment had been mobilised immediately and as the water had also started to recede inspection would be carried out to see how much portion had been damaged and needed to be replaced, and after which the repair work would be started and carried out round the clock.

“It usually takes around 48 hours to repair this size of damage but efforts are being made to complete the job in the minimum possible time,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2015