KARACHI – The Sindh government has invited tenders for conceptual master planning of the Zulfikarabad city near Thatta district. In the first phase, the firms would be short-listed after which technical and financial proposals would be sought from the competent firms for the development of the new city. The process would complete by April 15.
Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that initially the government would hire a consultant for conceptual planning to develop blueprints, funding-mode analysis and identification of expansion programmes. After Islamabad, Zulfikarabad would be the first to be built through planning on the basis of public-private partnership and would reduce ever-growing urbanisation in Karachi, which has been causing problems, however, rights of the local population would be ensured.
Besides having its own power generation houses, the new city would be protected against sea erosion by a 90-kilometre embankment from Ghaghar Phattak to Keti Bandar that would complete by July 2011. The Sindh government would also set up industrial zones adjacent to the Zulfikarabad city for promoting industrialisation in the region and providing jobs to the residents of the city.
In 2010, President Asif Ali Zardari had announced the establishment of Zulfikarabad in Thatta district, aimed at containing the ever-growing population of Karachi. An instruction was communicated to the provincial authorities by the presidency that preference should be given to the government and private firms from China, Malaysia and Korea.
However, the slow pace of developmental works of the new city by the Sindh authorities irked the president, who instructed the authorities concerned to initiate the work as soon as possible, reliable sources in Sindh government told Pakistan Today. According to the sources, the new city has great economic importance as it is being developed on the coastal belt of Thatta district, being flanked by the port city, the Thar coal mines, fishing zones, agricultural farmlands, etc.
The Sindh Land Management and Development Company was instructed to acquire at least 328,000 acres of land of Keti Bandar, Shah Bandar, Jati and Kharo Chaan towns of Thatta district.
