SHC seeks comments on plea against food street project on Mir Karam Talpur Road

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday issued notices to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator, local government secretary and others on a petition against the construction of a food street and park on Mir Karam Talpur Road near the Empress Market.

Petitioner Dilawar Khan and others had submitted in the petition that the Saddar area was well-known for its business activities and its roads, especially Mir Karam Talpur Road, was one of the busiest commercial roads in the area.

They submitted that the Sindh government had announced a food street project on Mir Karam Talpur Road in 2016 and subsequently the road was excavated and construction work began but soon after that, the work was suddenly discontinued without any reason and road was left exhumed.

They said the business community started suffering economically due to stoppage of work and shopkeepers of the area became victims of such incomplete construction work. They said traffic most of the time remained struck on Shahra-e-Liaquat, main church street and Sindh High Court Road due to the devastated condition of the road.

They said business in the area were going to collapse due to the road situation. The petitioners maintained that neither the food street was operational nor the public park was constructed on the street for last couple of years and the business community was continuously suffering due to the closure of the road.

They said that there was no need of construction of a park on the road because a park already existed in the area. The high court was requested to direct the government to suspend the project of park and food street immediately and reconstruct the excavated portion of the road so that traffic could run smoothly on the road.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi after a preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the KMC administrator, local government secretary and others, and called their comments. The high court directed its office to place the case for hearing after two weeks.