CM inaugurates 3.5km road from Saudabad Chowrangi to Thado Nullah

Calling the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) a rejected party, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the MQM-P has been accusing him of ignoring Karachi in development schemes, but as a matter of fact, development schemes worth Rs479 billion have been launched in the city while through the Annual Development Programme, 1,072 schemes are in progress for Rs991.79 billion with an allocation of Rs109.36 billion during the current year.

This he said while talking to the media on Saturday after the inauguration of a newly constructed road from Saudabad Chowrangi to Thado Nullah-Soomar Kandani Village, including the RCC Bridge in Khokhrapar, Malir, under the Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Project (KNIP).

“They [MQM-P] feel insecure after witnessing the ongoing fast track development in the city and understand very well that they would be completely eliminated at the hands of the PPP [Pakistan People’s Party] in the next general elections,” the CM remarked.

He said that instead of opposing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that had robbed the MQM of its assembly seats in the last general elections, the MQM-P joined them as a coalition partner in the Centre and now under frustration they had started levelling baseless allegations against the Sindh government.

“You were rejected in the last elections and again you would be eliminated further in the next elections because we serve people of this city with heart and soul,” Shah said.

Criticising the federal government, he said that it had given a Rs25 billion road scheme to the Punjab government but not even a Rs4 billion scheme to the Sindh government. “We are happy for them [federal govt] giving [Punjab] more schemes but at least the federal government should give us a scheme worth only Rs4 billion.”

He added that the federal government had given small schemes to their MPAs in Karachi. “It made us alerted when all of a sudden development works started in a park or at a playground as we suspected that land grabbers had started grabbing them but then we learnt that the uplift work had been started by PTI MPAs from the federal funds.”

Referring to the Sindh Assembly’s budget session, the CM said he had been delivering the budget speech since the last 12 years and it did not matter that this year he could not speak during the general discussion in the House on the provincial budget. “But you [leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly] should find out who had hatched up a conspiracy to deprive you of your maiden speech [as the opposition leader during the budget session],” he questioned.

Shah said that this was the first time the PTI MPAs had come into politics, and therefore they didn’t know about the ethics of politics. “When they see a microphone, they start using foul language against their political opponents as this is their politics,” he remarked.

The CM urged other provinces to announce Rs25,000 as the minimum monthly wage as was done by the Sindh government in its latest budget because their workers were unable to provide square meals to their families.

He said that he could not leave a worker or his family dying in hunger. “We have to give them reasonable wages if we want them to earn money.”

Road project

Discussing the road project he had inaugurated, the CM said that after inaugurating a high-profile scheme in Saddar on August 14, 2020, he then inaugurated an infrastructure project at Fishermen Chowrangi in Korangi, and now he had inaugurated yet another high-profile project of immense public benefit.

“A connection between the highly urbanised region and the suburban areas was required to help vulnerable masses to access the urban facilities with a better level of service,” the CM said, adding that the Saudabad project was part of the three projects undertaken as quick-fix initiatives by his government under the KNIP.

He thanked the World Bank’s team for their continuous support for the successful outcome, despite the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic and floods had made a huge impact during the execution of these projects.

He said that he had inaugurated the infrastructure project from Saudabad Chowrangi to Soomar Kandani Village. “I am certain that this project will enhance the communication between urban areas and the villages away from the urban localities and will help people use the amenities located at a far distance from their living place,” he said.

The CM stressed the need for taking care of sustainability while executing such projects. “We are using our projects to control environment degradation, plant trees and maintain them for a considerable time till the system is matured and the people start loving their own infrastructures and start contributing towards saving our own investment,” Shah said.

He called for the people to stop harming public properties, and help the municipal services protect their infrastructure.

He also urged the government agencies responsible for maintaining these upgraded infrastructures to continue with their maintenance efforts so that the investment could survive its designed life and continue to provide benefits beyond it.

He explained that work on the Saudabad project had started on July 25, 2019, and was completed in November 2020 followed by a bridge and an extended road in Soomar Kandani Village in March 2021. The project’s length was 3.5 kilometres, of which 2.9 kilometres were classified as a dual carriageway.

Saudabad Chowrangi had been redesigned and rehabilitated with improved traffic management and security intervention, Shah said, adding that it had a one kilometre-long walkway with a nine-metre wide green belt.

The entire road has been designed to have new LED street lights covering all dark spaces and suitable for night driving on the road. Around 200 poles have been installed or refurbished on the road.