KARACHI, March 22: The sectoral reports of the Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP-2020), also called the master plan, are still in the process of finalisation despite the fact that the City Council had approved the document last December.
This fact came to light at a consultative discussion organised by Shehri-CBE, a non-governmental organization, at a local hotel on Saturday.
Participants of the discussion, who had been provided copies of the executive summary of the master plan, raised several questions on different sectors of the plan, upon which a city government team led by EDO Iftikhar Kaimkhani informed them that almost all of their concerns have been addressed in detail in the sectoral reports of the master plan.
Amber Alibhai of Shehri requested the CDGK team to provide the complete copy of the master plan so that the participants could read it and gather again after some time to have a thorough discussion. Roland DeSouza of the same organization requested the team to put the complete master plan on the city government’s website so that other people could also review it.
However, representative of the consultant firm Naveed Zaheer, who had led the team which prepared the master plan, informed Mr DeSouza that the sectoral reports were still in the process of editing and correction.
On December 15, 2007, the City Council, amid an opposition boycott, approved the master plan.
Some of the participants felt the master plan was a land-centric document instead of citizen-centric.
The participants suggested formation of a watchdog group comprising elected representatives from Karachi, experts and members of civil society to monitor effective implementation of the master plan.
Housing shortage
Former chief of the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) Tasneem Siddiqui pointed out that 50 per cent of the city’s population was living in katchi abadis. He said that keeping in view the increasing population of the city, some 60,000 to 70,000 residential plots are required every year. But the CDGK figures showed that only 15,000 to 20,000 plots were being provided annually, due to which the rest of the population had no other option but to live in katchi abadis.
Mr Siddiqui said that there were over 800 notified goths in the city, but no government had ever carried out a proper survey, resulting in more encroachments. However, Mr Kaimkhani said the issue had certain political implications and, therefore, the master plan only recommended providing all necessary facilities and amenities in the notified goths.
Perveen Rehman of the Orangi Pilot Project raised the issue of water supply and observed that bulk water should be metered. Mr Zaheer, the representative of the consultant firm, informed her that in the sectoral report it was recommended that bulk water be metered first and on a later stage, perhaps after 2020, individual consumers should also be metered. “People have to understand that they have to pay for services,” he added.
The issue of the Sugarland City project at Hawkesbay was also raised during the discussion, regarding which Mr Kaimkhani said the project was not part of the city’s master plan and the CDGK’s recommendations were against the project.
At the outset of the seminar, Mr Kaimkhani gave a detailed presentation on the KSDP-2020.
He said that Karachi is the largest and fastest growing mega-city of the country with a population of over 16 million, which is expected to reach 27 million by 2020.
He said the operational time span for the plan extends to the year 2020 within the scope of Pakistan’s Vision 2030. He said the plan would be further extended to 2030 to cover the city’s region that includes part of the surrounding districts of Thatta, Jamshoro and Lasbela.
He clarified that copies of the master plan had been provided to every member of the City Council and the house was also briefed about the salient features of the master plan before it gave approval to the document.
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