I Own Karachi (Town)

8/7/2019 I Own Karachi (Town)

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NED University of Engineering and Technology

I OWN KARACHI (Report on Baldia Town)

Introduction:

This is basically an assignment report to enhance the observational skills of the students,

related to problems and the solutions of the city.

Being an Urban Engineer more specifically traffic engineer, I have selected the problems relatedto road networks of my town, Baldia Town. All the problems observed by me and their

solutions according to my knowledge are discussed in this report.

About Baldia Town:

Baldia Town is a town located in the western part of Karachi with a population of more than

400,000 at the 1998 census. It is bordered by SITE Town and Orangi to the east and by Kiamari

Town to the north and west, with most of the western boundary formed by part of the RCD

Highway. It has 8 UCs and the data of population is shown in table below. About 90% of

residents of Baldia town are labor class. The residential plots are of sizes 60, 80, and 120 squareyards.

Pro blems:

The residents of Baldia town are lucky to have such rapid development in the last 5 years, the

shape of Baldia town is totally different from what it was before this administrative system.

New network of roads is been laid out, all the UCs are provided with basic utility lines like

water supply, sewerage, telephone and electricity lines. All the Nazims did a very well job

along with their team, since this was for the first time and the Nazim were not technically

strong, so they did what was best according to them, but there are problems related to

S.No. Union Council Population

1 Gulshan-e-Gazi 51,096

2 Ittehad Town 54,625

3 Islam Nagar 39,879

4 Nai Abadi 38,948

5 Saeedabad 56,0846 Mohajir Camp 63,557

7 Muslim Mujahid

Colony

50,571

8 Rasheedabad 51,405





planning, and technical aspects of the road construction, sewerage system, storm water

drainage, and placement of utility lines.

I will primarily discuss the problems related to road and storm water drainage in this report.

Bad Planning of Storm water Drains:

As I have mentioned above the Nazim was not a technical person he did his level best to make

his town better to serve its residents but unluckily he did not get good consultant who did bad

planning which is explained below.

y Problem 1: Baldia town has advantage that it has natural slope which can be very

beneficial for draining out the rain water. But due to lake of planning proper

utilization of available drainage is not done, means that all the drainage is covered

from top and there is no opening for water to enter in the drain as a result of which

water stands over the roadside and cause problems. Figure 1.0-a

y Solution: The only thing that can be happened in this case is we can provide opening

in the curb stones placed at the edges of road. Figure 1.0-b

Figure 1.0-a

Figure 1.0-b





y Problem 2: The second thing is construction and planning fault both, at some places slope is not

provided in the direction where the storm water drain is, which is construction fault that is slope

is not maintained at the time of construction, and water accumulate the road surface. The

second is planning fault that is the collector streets which do not have drain along with them are

not given slope so that their water should be drain out to the drainage provided along with the

main collector streets. Figure 2.0

Figure 2.0

y Solution: The minor collector streets which are not provided with the storm water drain and

slop, should be provided with small size about 1 feet wide drain (depth will be vary according to

slope) along the edge of road that collect the water from minor collector and will drain out in

the drain of main collector. Figure 3.0

Figure 3.0





Bad Planning of Road Network:

y Problem 1: Road network is not properly planed that is master plan is not made; roads

are made abruptly proper survey is not done. For example the roads which are not

suppose to have high traffic density are widened and are of up to 6 lanes, on the other

end the minor artery which collects the traffic from different UCs and connects it withthe main road is only of 4 lanes. Figure 4.0

Figure 4.0

y Solution: Now it is the responsibility of next government that they must properly plan

the road networks and should make a plan for the road networks according the traffic

supposed to be traveled on these roads. And these minor arterials must be widened.

y Problem 2: This problem is already discussed above that roads are too much wide (6

lanes) but the traffic volume is not that much and not supposed to increased in the

future because most of the population is labor class and they use public transport and

use motor bikes and bi cycles. But these roads contain electric poles in the last lane of

the road after each kilometer which really discourages the traffic at this lane. Figure 5.0

Figure 5.0





y Solution: First solution is that these electric poles must be placed beside the walkway,

which the administration did not do at the time of construction even they did cutting in

order to widen the road.

Second thing that could be done here is we convert this lane into parking lane and put

some charge for this parking, because this is a commercial area and on the both sides

there are furniture showrooms, so people visit rapidly these shops along with their cars,and loading vehicles for furniture also stands there. And at night commercial vehicles

also parked at this road. This charged parking could generate revenue that can be

utilized for the maintenance of the road. Figure 6.0

Figure 6.0





Encroachment on the roads:

y Problem 1: Third problem is related to the collector road which contains a market in

between, due to this market space the hawkers has occupied more than one lane that is

one and half lane most of them are fruit sellers and burger point, so it causes problem

to the driver. There are also two rickshaw stand and taxi stand which also interruptstraffic.

y Solution: As I have earlier mentioned that the new roads are very wide and have more

capacity then the traffic volume using it, even after one and half lane occupied there is

no problem of traffic jam but the problem is of safety, the pedestrians are not safe in

this whole scenario.

What I think is that we must provide Fiber glass cabins (as used by CDGK) to the hawkers

which can easily been accumulating in less than one lane where there is abundance of

hawkers (near market area).

The second thing is that we must convert one lane into parking lane so as to facilitate

the people coming to the market ant provide same space to the taxi and rickshawdrivers and charge them for this facility, once again this money can be used for

maintenance of the road.

Note: Due to Eid season there was too much rush in that area so I am unable to show the real

picture and the idea which I have told earlier. Since the geometry and condition of the road is

same as discussed in the problem no 2, so by that picture (Figure 6.0) we can have a rough idea

what I have discussed in this problem.

y Problem 2: This problem is also related to encroachment, and is on the road where

garages are in abundance. At this road buses and small vehicle comes for the

maintenance and the driver park the vehicle in a very wrong way so that only one lane

remain open for the traffic, even than traffic does not jam due to low traffic but to a

driver like me it hurts to drive in the wrong direction lane due not having space at my

place. Figure 7.0

Figure 7.0





y Solution: If we provide box parking on the both sides of the road only one lane will be occupied

and two lanes on each side will remain open for the traffic, charged parking can be considered in

order to have money for the maintenance and repair of the road. Figure 8.0

Figure 8.0





Conclusion:

According to my observation and my perspective by proper team work of professional Baldia

town can be turn into a very good neighborhood. For the next government the things are very

clear they must make a plan first under supervision of professional (volunteers like we students

and people who are already in this field can also be consulted during planning).

One more thing which I would to suggest is that we must bring the trend of bi cycle in this

town, because about 90% of the population is labor class of this town and they work in the site

area where people even go by walk to their jobs, and distance is about 8 to 10 KMs, which can

be easily travelled by bicycle. If we provide proper route and lanes for these bicyclists this will

be the most suitable option for these people, because they can not afford 1000 rupees per

month for the fair of the buses from pay of 6000 rupees.

All the things discussed in this report are my personal observations and solutions provided

are my perspective, please madam do let me know are they professional enough to be

presented to the town administration for execution.

I Own Karachi (Town)

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