Stormwater drain around PSB centre needed

KARACHI: The lack of civic planning, technical faults and architectural wrongdoings at PSB-owned coaching centre were exposed during the heavy rains in the city last week.

Rainwater inundated the entire field and also caused the front wall to collapse. The 100-feet long front wall which has collapsed was built around eight years ago.

The first time the wall at the same place collapsed because of heavy rains during the era of former president General Pervaiz Musharraf.

Sources said that no stormwater drain was developed around the coaching centre which is situated below the surrounding roads coming from Karsaz and Hassan Square areas. As a result, the rainwater submerged the centre, including its main athletics field.

The sources claimed that unless a stormwater drain was developed near the coaching centre, the problem will occur every time rains hit the city.

The sportsmen who use the coaching centre’s facilities expressed annoyance at the situation. They appealed to Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, a prominent businessman of the city who was inducted into a sports committee by PSB in June this year, to take notice of the situation and play his role in the development of a stormwater drain around the centre.

The committee of which Dhedhi is a member is supposed to take policy decisions for sports in the country.

The sportsmen said that they hoped that Dhedhi would visit the coaching centre to see the situation himself and get the issue resolved as quickly as possible. This correspondent made calls to Dhehdi, but he was not available.