Presiding over a meeting on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has expressed his desire to buy the historic Metropole Hotel’s land in order to renovate the space to a park for the children and elderly.
The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Nasir Shah, CM Advisor Murtaza Wahab, Chairperson P&D Nahid Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, Special Secretary LG Niaz Soomro, experts of P&D and other departments.
The decision was made considering the traffic congestion issues round the clock at the signal and the repercussion of replacing the hotel with a high rise building. He stated that, “Construction of any high rise building on the land of the [Metropole] hotel would cause further congestion of the traffic in the area and would create serious environmental issues.” He added that future decisions would weigh in social factors such as environmental concerns, provision of sewerage system, capacity of roads and availability of other facilities.
He further pointed out that the left turning from the hotel towards Clifton is also jammed by traffic due to the signal and suggested buying the portion of Sindh club to widen the road.
He has asked Karachi Commissioner to discuss the matter with the owners of Metropole and Sindh Club and get back to him within 10 days.
To further reduce the traffic congestion, the chief Minister said that two under passes needed to be built, one at the Metropole Signal along the Abdullah Haroon Road and another at Avari Towers on Fatima Jinnah Road to provide signal free passage to those heading from Clifton to Saddar and Saddar to Cant. Station.
He has ordered the concerned authorities to prepare proposals for these underpasses and submit them for further action.
He also stated he was debating constructing an underpass at the signal on club road towards Sultanabad to make the route signal free.
The Chief Minister further discussed the traffic issues in Korangi after the destruction of the Korangi Causeway due to flooding. He stated that Korangi has been isolated from defence and people had to use the alternate route through industrial area leading to traffic jams.
He said he wanted to construct a bridge on the causeway to sort this issue.
He has made a basic map of the area and would finalize this after incorporating engineering solutions.
The Chief Minister was informed that the Yellow Line projected had suggested creating a Flyover from Baloch Colony to Korangi which would cover the causeway. He has directed the P&D department to collaborate with the Yellow line project, meanwhile he would construct a bridge on the causeway.
