Flood in Malir River cuts off routes to Korangi

All the land routes leading to District Korangi of the city were cut off on Monday for the third time during the current monsoon season, creating massive traffic jams in the entire district on Monday evening.

The Korangi Causeway and EBM Causeway, which have been built on the river bed of the Malir River, were submerged due to flood in the river because of the two-day intermittent rainfall.

The traffic was suspended along the Korangi Crossing and citizens could use only the single alternative route to Korangi, the two-lane Jam Sadiq Bridge. Due to the closure of the EBM Causeway, the movement of traffic from Baloch Colony towards Brookes Chowrangi was also stopped for several hours.

There are three main ways to reach the Korangi area. Commuters can go to Korangi through Shah Faisal Colony using the Shah Faisal flyover constructed over Malir River, or they can use the two-lane Jam Sadiq flyover, or they can travel on two causeways - EBM and Korangi – which pass through the river bed without any elevated track. A causeway is basically a track, road or railway route on the upper point of an embankment across a low or wet place or a river.

The Jam Sadiq flyover is mostly used by heavy industrial traffic, as it directly lands in the Korangi Industrial Area, whereas, the causeways are used by the commuters going towards residential areas of Korangi.

Speaking to The News, Korangi Deputy Commissioner Sheharyar Gull said that both the causeways have been closed for traffic due to safety concerns. The Malir River, he said, was flooded and the water level was further rising in it. As for the alternative route of the Jam Sadiq flyover, he said the district administration and the traffic police were present there to manage the traffic.

After 11pm, heavy traffic starts moving towards Korangi Industrial Area, using the thin Jam Sadiq flyover. When asked how the district administration would handle the situation there, Gull responded that if the traffic police demanded, they would halt the heavy traffic movement in the district for a day or two.

Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) President Danish Khan was stuck in traffic in front of his office at Brookes Chowrangi for three-and-a-half hours. The entire district, he pointed out, had been flooded.

“There’s water on the causeway. The Creek Road is flooded. We don’t know if we will reach home tonight,” he said and demanded of the Sindh government to construct a wide flyover over the Malir River for the traffic movement.

According to Khan, the government should realise how climatic conditions have been changing rapidly and how often the Malir River has started getting flooded. “Another flyover to connect Korangi with other parts of the city is inevitable now,” he said and shared that when Syed Qaim Ali Shah was the Sindh chief minister, the association wrote to him several times to construct a flyover over the Malir River.

Once the bridge is constructed, it will cause much ease for the traffic going towards Korangi’s residential and industrial areas, and the traffic going towards the Defence Housing Authority would also easily move.

Meanwhile, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani told The News that the situation was pretty much under control in the district. As for any new flyover, he said it could be a long-term strategy to resolve the issue and the Sindh government could decide about it.

The technical director general of the Sindh local government department, Niaz Somroo, shared that a flyover parallel to the Jam Sadiq Bridge over Malir River had been proposed for the Yellow Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The Yellow Line project is a 21-kilometre-long segregated bus route from Dawood Chowrangi in Landhi all the way till Numaish Chowrangi. Somroo explained that the Sindh government was planning to construct a large structure which would have a segregated track for the Yellow Line bus service and another track for normal vehicular traffic. He was, however, not sure when this proposed flyover would be constructed, as the project was with the Sindh transport department.