Drive to turn Gujjar Nullah into ‘model storm water drain’ begins

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has once again launched a major operation to clear the massive Gujjar Nullah in the city’s District Central of encroachments.

The first phase of the operation will last about a week, during which soft encroachments will be removed. In the next stage the KMC will take around 10 days to demolish over 4,000 houses, commercial units and eight to 10 mosques situated on the storm water drain’s banks.

Almost every year before monsoon, the KMC — with the help of the Sindh government and, sometimes, the federal government, and with the involvement of the Pakistan Army and the National Disaster Management Authority — not only cleans the nullah but also removes soft encroachments, which include cow sheds, kiosks, tea shops and small-scale commercial units.

Anti-Encroachment Senior Director Bashir Siddiqui said on Monday the operation was conducted from Zero Point in North Karachi’s Sector 11-A all the way to Shafiq Morr. He said around two kilometres on either bank of the drain was cleared of soft encroachments, including cow sheds, tea shops, walls of small commercial units, and iron gates and grills.

The purpose of the removal of soft encroachments surrounding the Gujjar Nullah, according to him, is to make a passage for the KMC’s heavy machinery so that hard encroachments such as houses and shops can be knocked down.

Around 4,000 houses and commercial units on the nullah’s banks that have been identified by the District Central deputy commissioner’s office with the help of the KMC’s Katchi Abadis Department will be razed during the operation.

The Gujjar Nullah is a natural drain flowing from New Karachi to Haji Mureed Goth’s Chona Depot, where it falls into the Lyari River. The nullah crosses Rashid Minhas Road at Shafiq Morr and heads towards the Cafe Piyala Hotel, then all the way to the Ziauddin Hospital before falling into the Lyari River.

Siddiqui said the Gujjar Nullah will be turned into a model storm water drain. He said that right now the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board’s water flows into it, and when it rains, the rainwater also makes its way into the same natural drain.

Once the nullah is cleared of encroachments, he added, it will be remodelled in a way that the sewerage water and the rainwater flow into it separately. For the remodelling of the city’s nullahs, he pointed out that help has been sought from the NED University.

He explained that on either side of the Gujjar Nullah, a 30-feet-wide road will be constructed initially. “For about a week we’ll only remove soft encroachments,” he said, adding that the nullah will be widened to 60 to 80 feet. He also said that over 4,000 houses and other structures will be demolished on both sides of the drain. As for the residents, he said that they have been given a week’s notice already.

“The residents have also been alerted about the operation through ads in the newspapers,” he said, adding that while identifying the houses, the residents were informed that their homes were considered encroachments and would be razed by the KMC.

Siddiqui said that copies of the residents’ CNICs were obtained during the survey. According to the Sindh government’s policy, the affected residents will be provided with house rent for two years as compensation.

Recalling last month’s Mehmoodabad Nullah operation, he said that it took a lot of time because the KMC had been demolishing encroachments on one bank of the drain at a time. As for the Gujjar Nullah, he said that the operation will be carried out swiftly because it will cover both banks simultaneously. He was sure that the drain will be cleared of all kinds of encroachments in a month’s time.

The KMC official said that on Tuesday the operation will continue from Shafiq Morr all the way to Cafe Piyala. When asked if the popular tea shop will be demolished, he said that he is not aware of it yet.

Currently, he said, the KMC is demolishing soft encroachments, so once the municipal body is done with that, they will see what commercial units have been identified for demolition. When asked about mosques, he said that eight to 10 of them will be razed. He clarified that local prayer leaders and the residents have already been taken on board for the purpose.