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Karachi, a metropolitan city with no master plan

Khafee

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Karachi, a metropolitan city with no master plan
Sohail Khan

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Karachi is a city without a master plan for the last 34 years.

The last “notified” master plan was made in 1975 for a 10-year period. This means after 1985, no work has been on streamlining the growth and development of Karachi.

What is a master plan?
It is a document with a long-term plan providing an intangible layout to guide future growth and development of a city.

It includes analysis, proposals and recommendations for an area’s population, economy, housing, transportation, community facilities and land use.

The first such for Karachi was prepared in 1951 when the population of the metropolis was only 1.5 million, says architect and urban planner Arif Hasan.

He was speaking to students, social workers and journalists during a session, ‘Importance of mapping for better growth of a city’, at the Urban Resource Centre in Karachi on Wednesday.
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Hasan spoke at length over some of the main issues left unaddressed for the last many years by the authorities concerned.

The second plan was issued in 1975. It was named Master Plan 1975-85. No ‘serious’ attempt has been made since to prepare a master plan for Karachi.

No mapping, drainage plans
In 2005, Karachi almost got a master plan. The then city district government was working the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020, which was even approved in the City Council, but never notified.

Hasan questioned the unavailability of a detailed map for Karachi or a drainage plan. “Is a detailed map of Karachi available? Does Karachi have a drainage plan? Can any city run without mapping?” the senior researcher and town planner asked in succession.

He said maps of the water supply system have been available since 1992, but no work has been done after it to change the infrastructure and no recent maps of the water supply system are available anywhere.

Hasan emphasised on mapping related to the density of the city as the density of Karachi in terms of population and high-rise buildings has seen a dramatic increase without any planning.

No government department is working on this, he said, adding that the Master Plan Group of Offices is not fully operational and there is no more a process of up- gradation of Karachi’s maps.

“You need maps at the union council level. A proper survey of population, growth, land in use, housing, community facilities in that union council should be evaluated, but unfortunately, no facility is being provided to perform these calculations,” he said.

The city’s sewerage problem was also highlighted by him. He gave three reasons why the streets of Karachi were inundated by sewerage water.

One of them is that the drains are blocked in several areas of the city. Katchi abadis have been established on rain water drains. All three routes of draining out rain water, he said, are encroached. Residential colonies at the Qayumabad, Northern bypass and Macchar Colony nullahs are covered in heaps of garbage, which is a hurdle for drainage of rainwater.

‘Political appointments ruining infrastructure’
Karachi’s infrastructure is in ruins because of recruitment on a political basis in the government, said Hasan. Political interference in civic issues, he said, has made the condition from bad to worse.

Many of the students participating the session shared their views too. In a discussion on why maps are important to construct any infrastructure, a student from Multan, Usman, who has completed his intermediate, said he wanted to know the technical grounds necessary before construction of a house. He gave an example of his hometown, Alipur, saying that people construct houses without any planning and do not follow building rules.

“I will return to Multan and build my house using the techniques I have learned here,” Usman said.

Hunain Naeem, a student of Karachi University’s geography department, said the session helped give him a basic understanding of house construction. He said his university was teaching an advanced stage of the same subject, which was difficult to understand.

Another KU student, Rida, said mapping is the best way to represent a thought or vision.

SOURCE
 

Khafee

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Karachi is in ICU and needs drastic measures. As a foreigner, who has actually owned property in Karachi, spent summers there, and has seen its steady decline post '88. This is my conclusion:

1) Just like Martial Law was imposed in Lahore from February 1953 – May 1953. The same needs to be done.
2) All political parties who have looted the city, should be tried, locked up and banned.
3) It should be made into a Federal territory, and NOT a separate province.
4) Law & Order, i.e. Police and Courts need to be overhauled ASAP.
5) Until the civil apparatus becomes reliable, Military Courts should be established
6) Sindh Provincial Assembly should be dissolved, and every MPA should be investigated.
7) Waste to Electricity plants set up - With a daily production of 11k~12k tonnes of garbage, it is very feasible.
8) Invite investors to overhaul the public trnspt system on BOO basis. This would include electric buses, overhead trams and trains.
 

TomCat

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Karachi is in ICU and needs drastic measures. As a foreigner, who has actually owned property in Karachi, spent summers there, and has seen its steady decline post '88. This is my conclusion:

1) Just like Martial Law was imposed in Lahore from February 1953 – May 1953. The same needs to be done.
2) All political parties who have looted the city, should be tried, locked up and banned.
3) It should be made into a Federal territory, and NOT a separate province.
4) Law & Order, i.e. Police and Courts need to be overhauled ASAP.
5) Until the civil apparatus becomes reliable, Military Courts should be established
6) Sindh Provincial Assembly should be dissolved, and every MPA should be investigated.
7) Waste to Electricity plants set up - With a daily production of 11k~12k tonnes of garbage, it is very feasible.
8) Invite investors to overhaul the public trnspt system on BOO basis. This would include electric buses, overhead trams and trains.
09) Remove Goths, demolish all encroached projects.
10) Send back all the villagers who come here every eid on buses just to beg on roads and wreck havoc on infrastructure and promote street crimes.
11) Afghanis, Waderas, Those Urdu Speaking who take pride in calling themselves 'MUHAJIR' still on political basis must be kept outside the city reaches.
12) Ban qinchi, reduce rickshaw numbers drastically as these 'JAHILS' damage everyone's cars in the name of HALAL KI ROZI
13) Call people with big pockets to invest in industries, offices, SkyScrapers in Karachi to make it a proper Dubai/Hong Kong/Beijing type city in future.
14) Apply protocols on all toll plazas to filter people coming in & out and their purposes. If useless, don't let them. (I know this is harsh but this is a must to make it a proper trade centre)
 

TsAr

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Karachi had a master plan but it was never followed. The issue with Karachi and other cities like Lahore is that the govt did not pay any attention on other cities, population moved to these big cities for various reasons. Sindh only as Karachi and to some extent hyderabad.
 

Counter-Errorist

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Karachi is in ICU and needs drastic measures. As a foreigner, who has actually owned property in Karachi, spent summers there, and has seen its steady decline post '88. This is my conclusion:

1) Just like Martial Law was imposed in Lahore from February 1953 – May 1953. The same needs to be done.
2) All political parties who have looted the city, should be tried, locked up and banned.
3) It should be made into a Federal territory, and NOT a separate province.
4) Law & Order, i.e. Police and Courts need to be overhauled ASAP.
5) Until the civil apparatus becomes reliable, Military Courts should be established
6) Sindh Provincial Assembly should be dissolved, and every MPA should be investigated.
7) Waste to Electricity plants set up - With a daily production of 11k~12k tonnes of garbage, it is very feasible.
8) Invite investors to overhaul the public trnspt system on BOO basis. This would include electric buses, overhead trams and trains.

PTI doesn't currently have the political capital to pull off anything this drastic. They need to focus on getting the economy back on track, and attack this problem once things have stabilized. Without anything to show for their governance, they won't have enough public support. It's unfortunate but PPP is still a force to be reckoned with in Sindh.
 

TomCat

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PTI doesn't currently have the political capital to pull off anything this drastic. They need to focus on getting the economy back on track, and attack this problem once things have stabilized. Without anything to show for their governance, they won't have enough public support. It's unfortunate but PPP is still a force to be reckoned with in Sindh.
It’s a sad reality. And due to this, unfortunately PTI might not make it next time because our illiterate arrogant people only see what media does and what they want to see i.e “Tabdeeli in the form of mehngai” While these same people spend 5-10k+ In restaurants, especially the labour class who spend 100-150 per meal 2 times a day. PTI, judiciary must pace up against these goons and corruption. I really hate our judiciary, date postponed, bailed, this that utter s**t. Where the hell is Article 149? Karachi is at minus potential of what it can really be.
 

Counter-Errorist

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It’s a sad reality. And due to this, unfortunately PTI might not make it next time because our illiterate arrogant people only see what media does and what they want to see i.e “Tabdeeli in the form of mehngai” While these same people spend 5-10k+ In restaurants, especially the labour class who spend 100-150 per meal 2 times a day. PTI, judiciary must pace up against these goons and corruption. I really hate our judiciary, date postponed, bailed, this that utter s**t. Where the hell is Article 149? Karachi is at minus potential of what it can really be.

While I generally agree with the direction PTI is heading, the middle and lower classes are getting absolutely crushed. It would have helped had they been a little less incompetent.

Most of us who are better off don't feel it. We just make our budgets a little bigger. if our food budget was 20,000 before, it's 25,000 now.

The poorer folks cannot do that, they have to reduce their food instead. It's hard to imagine the anger of person watching his kids sleep hungry because a new government made new policies. It's not his fault he's poor, it's not his fault he's too uneducated the understand why these policies are being made. He's simply a prisoner of his birth.

He watches on the news everyday that petrol prices, food prices, utility tariffs -- all going up. He just gets angrier and angrier, and understandably so.
You tell him that this is all so we have a better future. What good is that future if he cannot feed his kids, can't buy new clothes and toys for Eid -- right now.
 

TomCat

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While I generally agree with the direction PTI is heading, the middle and lower classes are getting absolutely crushed. It would have helped had they been a little less incompetent.

Most of us who are better off don't feel it. We just make our budgets a little bigger. if our food budget was 20,000 before, it's 25,000 now.

The poorer folks cannot do that, they have to reduce their food instead. It's hard to imagine the anger of person watching his kids sleep hungry because a new government made new policies. It's not his fault he's poor, it's not his fault he's too uneducated the understand why these policies are being made. He's simply a prisoner of his birth.

He watches on the news everyday that petrol prices, food prices, utility tariffs -- all going up. He just gets angrier and angrier, and understandably so.
You tell him that this is all so we have a better future. What good is that future if he cannot feed his kids, can't buy new clothes and toys for Eid -- right now.
While i didn't note down the plight of the lower class, you summarised it quite well. This is the sole incompetency of PTI government of not opening up to public often, educate them about the severity of crises, and what measures they are taking to tackle them and what timeframe. This is their biggest weakpoint which is going to cost them next elections and as usual our public will appoint the usual BS people.
 
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