Karachi: Inaugurated SFC-III remains incomplete

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Qadeer Tanoli
The Works and Services (W&S) Department of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has failed to complete a number of components of the Signal Free Corridor (SFC)-III project despite the fact that the corridor was inaugurated on August 13.

The W&S department is yet to complete the Jail Chowrangi Flyover which passes from the Central Prison boundary and leads to University Road. The service road at Mazar-e-Quaid and three pedestrian bridges at Preedy Street are also incomplete. It was learnt that the department concerned failed to evaluate issues that might hamper the completion of the corridor.

Sources at CDGK said that Jail Chowrangi Flyover was one of the components of the project which were wrongly conceived. The department concerned hurriedly inaugurated the SFC-III, even though work on the remaining components is yet to be started.

Meanwhile, incomplete work on the service road of Mazar-e-Quaid is creating major problems near the main gate of the mausoleum, because pedestrians have to face a storm of dust while passing through this point.

W&S Executive District Officer (EDO) Rasheed Mughal said that the CDGK was working as fast as it could to construct 50 apartments for jail staff inside the prison premises. Work on the remaining component of the Jail Chowrangi Flyover cannot begin unless the apartments are constructed, he said.

Around three acres in the prison premises are required by the W&S department to construct a loop for the flyover; this area is currently occupied by the prison staff quarters, Mughal said.

He added that they had offered the jail authorities to give rent facility to its staffers whose quarters were going to be demolished for the construction of the flyover. “They are not ready to accept our offer so we have been left with no option but to wait until the construction of flats is complete,” he said, adding that the CDGK was constructing 50 ground-plus-three apartments for prison staffers. Work on these apartments will be complete in around two months, he said, adding that once the apartments project is complete, it will take only a month more to complete the remaining part of the flyover.

He further said that work on the service road was also under way, and the CDGK was using the available space for the construction of the service road at the Mazar-e-Quaid.

He said that his department needs land from the premises of the mausoleum; this, however, is a federal government issue, and efforts are being made to settle it with the management of the mausoleum.

Public Transport Management Operation and Regulation District Officer Muhammad Athar informed The News that pillars for the three pedestrian bridges have already been erected on Preedy Street; the construction of the bridges will be completed within a month.

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