CLICK ignores mayor’s concerns over washed-away Karachi roads

• Most city roads are in ruins after recent rains
• KMC begins repair work on streets under its control

KARACHI: Despite serious concerns raised by Mayor Murtaza Wahab, authorities of World Bank-funded Competitive and Liveable City of Karachi (CLICK) project remain silent on the deteriorating state of key road links after recent monsoon rains, leaving their fate hanging as the KMC begins the repair work of roads under its control.

Despite passage of over a month, the CLICK authorities have failed to respond to the concerns raised by the KMC about its performance.

In August 2024, the KMC through a letter while referring to the concerns of the city mayor had questioned the sustainability and quality of the infrastructure development by the World Bank-funded programme after over a dozen roads recently rehabilitated by the CLICK were destroyed in rains.

In the first week of August, Mayor Wahab had questioned the sustainability and quality of the infrastructure development by the World Bank-funded programme after over a dozen roads recently rehabilitated by the CLICK were destroyed in rains.

However, the KMC officials claimed that they had not received any response from the CLICK authorities about the concerns raised in the letter. When contacted in this regard, the CLIKC spokesman responded with, “no comment”.

The mayor took “serious notice” of the repair works after the moderate to heavy rainfall in different parts of the city left major roads caved in, key thoroughfares riddled with potholes and sewers overflowing.

In the letter to the CLICK project director, the focal person of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) highlighted “serious note” of the mayor over the post-rain situation seeking “report within a week” and asking that all issues be “addressed accordingly”.

The mayor had also wondered over the performance of the consultant hired by the CLICK and attached a list of some 14 roads, which were improved under the multi-million rupees World Bank funding only during financial 2023-24, but all of them were washed away in the recent rains.

The Sindh government in January 2020, with the help of the World Bank Group, had launched a US $240 million mega project — CLICK — to bring in radical reforms in infrastructure with particular emphasis on increasing efficiency of the city’s local government delivery system.

Rs2bn for repair of roads

Meanwhile, the KMC has begun the repair and rehabilitation of damaged roads under its control.

An official said that with an estimated budget of Rs2 billion, the rehabilitation work would include repair of the damaged sewerage lines and carpeting of the roads.

“This time the KMC has also hired the services of the state-owned National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) for transparency and quality control,” said an official.

“The NESPAK would ensure quality of this whole operation. It recently offered its consultancy to the KMC in desilting and cleaning the nullahs before rains under which in addition to the 46 major drains, smaller drains were also cleaned,” he added.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2024