Reservations of villagers over Malir Expressway land allocation resolved, says Jumani

Sindh Caretaker Minister for Local Government, Housing, Town Planning and Rehabilitation Muhammad Mubeen Jumani has announced that the reservations of villagers regarding the Malir Expressway land allocation have been resolved.

After reviewing the under construction Malir Expressway project on Saturday, he told media persons that work would continue on all the development projects approved until August 15 across the province, as per the instructions of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Work on the Malir Expressway, he said, was progressing rapidly and would be completed on time. “We are not political people, we do not get involved in political matters,” he said.

Additional Chief Secretary Manzoor Sheikh, Project Director Malir Expressway Niaz Soomro and other officials were also present. Jumani visited the under construction Malir Expressway from its starting point to its ending.

During the press briefing, Niaz Soomro said that the project is being constructed under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode at a cost of Rs27 billion. The project, he said, started in May 2022 and would be completed by December next year.

The Malir Expressway is a 39-kilometre expressway, which is 39 meters wide. The expressway will have six tracks in both directions. This expressway will have six interchanges and two toll plazas. It will start from EBM Causeway Jam Sadiq Ali Bridge and end at Kathore.

Soomro said 53 percent of the phase-1 of the expressway, which is from Jam Sadiq Bridge to Quaidabad, has been completed while the ground work on the second phase has been completed more than 10 percent. An application has been made for permission from the Pakistan Railways to construct an overhead bridge over the railway line between the two phases, after which the work of the second phase would also be started expeditiously.

Jumani said the purpose of the visit was to review the progress of the construction work and to remove any obstacles. By looking at the pace of work, he said, it could be said the project would be a beautiful gift to not only for the people of Karachi but also for those who came to Karachi from interior Sindh.

After the completion of this expressway, the one-and-a-half to two-hour journey would be reduced to only 35 to 40 minutes. He said that the project director had informed him that reservations of the villages of Malir regarding the project’s land allocation had been removed.

He said that there were no more problems due to the expressway being constructed. He said they would try to come up with a beautification plan around the expressway.

In response to a question, the caretaker provincial minister said that the construction work would continue on all the development projects approved in the province till August 15 as the Election Commission had instructed that development work on such projects only should be continued.

For any public interest project, which is necessary, he said, they would seek special approval from the Election Commission. In response to the question regarding the “system” in the province, he said he was not aware if there was a “system” in place.