Karachi: No improvement on I.I Chundrigar Road despite multi-million ‘beautification’

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Farooq Baloch
The I.I. Chundrigar Road Beautification and Renovation Project, jointly completed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), seems to have failed to serve the purpose it was planned for.

Traffic congestion still exists, pollution remains to be a problem for many while the failure of the SBP to operate a shuttle service which was supposed to be part of the project, has left thousands of office goers with no option but to walk or hire rickshaws. The project was launched to avoid frequent traffic jams on this important artery, which is also considered to be the city’s financial hub. For this purpose, banks and other businesses operating on I.I. Chundrigar Road proposed that public transport should be banned on this road. Another reason why public transport had to be removed was the pollution caused by decades-old unfit buses. It was also learnt that the all business firms, led by the SBP, were of the opinion that these obsolete buses will ruin the beauty of the road after renovation. They therefore had to be kept away.

Athar Hussain, the then- EDO Transport and Communication Department at the CDGK said, “Our department was not a member of the SBP committee formed in this regard. We never received the minutes of their meetings on this project.” He further said that the SBP committee drafted the model and sent it to them for execution. “Their model included a shuttle service that would be provided by the SBP for commuters once the project was complete. But they never ran their shuttle service,” he said. “In fact the CDGK operated a shuttle service for the interim period. It was shut down, however, when the project was completed.”

The SBP department concerned could not explain why the shuttle service was not operated. They maintained that the committee concerned could respond to the query but they could not get The News in touch with them.

“It is only a matter of enforcement and the congestion can be eased. If politicians and media people stop using their influence and contacts things can be improved,” Capital City Police (Traffic) SSP Zone-1 Mohib Ali told The News. He further said that people do not follow parking restrictions, and when action is taken against them they use their contacts to do away with the violations. “The second problem is the lack of parking space along this important artery,” he said. “I suggested that the CDGK hire the railway ground for charged parking. All the private cars would use it and the arrangement will not only help solve traffic problems but also add to the revenue of the Pakistan Railway and the CDGK.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=160912