KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday directed the local government department to work out a plan for cleanliness of 555 storm-water drains on the same model as adopted for Mehmoodabad and other nullahs.

“The cleanliness model of Mehmoodabad and Gujjar nullahs was a complete package under which not only encroachments were removed but the affected people have been compensated and roads are being constructed along the embankments of the nullahs,” he said.

He added that this model needed to be replicated for undertaking cleanliness of 41 nullahs of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and 514 of district municipal corporations (DMCs) so that the issue of urban flooding could be resolved once and for all.

He was presiding over a meeting of the Provincial Coordination and Implementation Committee (PCIC) here at CM House. Provincial ministers, among other officials, participated in the meeting.

The meeting was told that the anti-encroachment drive along the Mehmoodabad nullah was started on Jan 4 and 7.5km areas on both sides had been cleared and out of 56 compensation cheques, 49 had been distributed.

Committee reviews pace of encroachment removal drive along city’s major storm-water drains

Cleanliness to cost Rs430m

The city commissioner told the meeting that the cleanliness work would cost around Rs430 million, adding that out of own resources the DMCs would utilise Rs119m.

The chief minister directed the LG minister to submit the requirement so that funds could be approved and released.

The NED vice chancellor told the meeting that the total drainage network of 39 drains was spread over 229.12km in length.

He said that he had already submitted a detailed survey report of Manzoor Colony drain, Gujjar main drain, Orangi main drain, Gujjar drain distributaries and Manzoor Colony distributaries, adding that the survey report of the remaining 25 drains was being prepared.

The VC said that Hub drain had 37 intercepting structures. He suggested an increase in its width from 10 feet to 25ft to cater to the expected flow.

Similarly, he said the Essa Nagri drain had 68 intercepting structures and there was a need to widen its bed.

According to the VC, the Madina Colony drain had 103 intercepting structures, therefore widening and bed maintenance of the drain was decided.

The Mowach Goth drain had 76 intercepting structures, Haroonabad 26 and Pitcher nullah had 30 intercepting points.

The VC said that Saadi Town was inundated in the last heavy rains when the rainwater had overtopped the Superhighway.

He suggested construction of a separate nullah from Saadi Town to discharge water into the Lyari River.

The chief minister directed the LG department to work out a detailed plan for restructuring of the nullahs as suggested by the NED VC.

3,957 structures to be removed from Gujjar nullah

The meeting was told that as per a survey 3,957 structures had to be removed along Gujjar nullah. The length of the nullah was 12.6km and work to remove soft encroachments had been completed between Feb 8 and Feb 18 and a full-scale encroachment removal drive was going on from Feb 19.

The chief minister was told that out of 3,957 compensation cheques, 3,587 had been distributed among the affected people and the process for handing over the remaining cheques was in progress.

The meeting was informed that Orangi nullah was six-km long in district West and as many as 1,013 structures along its embankments were identified to be removed.

It was informed that the soft removal of encroachments had been cleared and a full-scale removal was started from March.

The meeting was told that Orangi nullah had a length of 1.6km in district Keamari where 193 structures had been removed and cheques were being distributed among the affected people under the resettlement support programme.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2021