The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has started demolishing houses along the Gujjar Nullah. The 12.58km nullah starts from New Karachi near NooraniMuhallah and ends at Liaquatabad near Haji Mureed Goth. It is being cleared on the recommendations of a technical team to ensure a smooth flow of rainwater.
The city government has already cleared the soft encroachments, including shanties, cattle farms, and wooden godowns, near the nullah. It then moved towards removing concrete structures. The operation was, however, halted on February 16 after the city government was stopped from razing structures built on duly leased land. It was agreed that the demolition drive will resume once the area residents have been compensated.
Karachi Administrator Laeeq Ahmed said that Rs90,000 cheques will be given to area residents as rent for six months. On Wednesday, cheques were distributed among 20 families.People whose houses will suffer 30% or more damages will be compensated too, said a Katchi Abadi director. There are at least 2,000 houses along the nullah.
The operation is expected to continue for over two months. The KMC demolished houses along the eight-kilometreMehmoodabad Nullah last month. It took a month to raze 58 houses.
The drive is being conducted on the orders of the National Disaster Management Authority and the Sindh government. The two are working together to ensure that the city does not face another crisis during Monsoon rains. Karachi drowned during the August 2020 rains which destroyed the city’s infrastructure and resulted in losses worth millions of rupees.They chalked out a strategy and approached NED’s technical team to help them. They are working on remodelling the city’s three major nullahs: Mehmoodabad, Gujjar and Orangi.The technical study of Gujjar Nullah was submitted to the Sindh government on December 31, 2020.“As per the final plan, around 4,000 houses would be affected on both sides of the Gujjar Nullah,” said Dr Adnan Qadir, the NED Infrastructure and Urban Development Department chairman.
The NED team has finalised its survey report along with the hydrological and hydraulic analyses of the drain.A hydrological analysis is the study of the transformation of rainfall into a runoff, while a hydraulic analysis studies the motion of liquids in relation to fluid mechanics and fluid dynamics.
The NED Infrastructure Engineering Department was working on two designs during the technical study of the drain. The designs were the Liberal Model and the Conservative Model.
