If you travel up country from Karachi, you may spot billboard on all the roads of the port city leading towards the Superhighway, guiding visitors to a Pakistan Army residential, commercial and mixed-use elements project, DHA City.
Almost 56 km from the city’s core area of Karachi, 35 km from the Jinnah International Airport (JIA) and 26 km from Karachi’s Toll Plaza, the DHA City has been envisioned as ‘the first sustainable city of Pakistan’, which will serve as a model for future independent cities in the country.
Spreading over 19,640 acres of land, the DHA City has almost all the facilities and luxuries available in a city. Besides the residential and commercial plots, DHA City is offering villas, farmhouses and a golf resort within.
With its own dedicated water and energy resources, DHA City Karachi will also house an Institute of Business Administration (IBA) campus, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) teaching hospital, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) cancer hospital as well as a research centre. To connect the DHA City Karachi with the DHA, the project developers have planned Malir Motorway; the Sindh government has allocated funds for its development in the 2016-17 budget. The Motorway will cut down hour-long journey into just a 20 minute drive.
The project was started five years ago, but the development work was sped up in the second half of 2012. The DHA City project developer claims that the best engineering practices are being followed in the design and construction of the project, but a moderate rain in the last month exposed loopholes in the infrastructure of the much-awaited housing project.
A day-long visit of the DHA City Karachi revealed that the rainwater had damaged the recently constructed roads network of the project, raising questions about the design of the project and the material used in its construction. Unfortunately, even the moderate amount of rainfall that the city receives appears to be causing a disproportionately high amount of damage to the project.
Although the construction of houses, villas and farmhouses is yet to start at the DHA City Karachi, the rainwater has already caused breaches in the roads and the sewage network. The boundary wall of the 19,640 acres piece has been damaged at various points. The roads in Sector 5 and Sector 9 were also damaged badly in the rain.
The project administration placed pieces of blocks and stones around the damaged roads to block the vehicular traffic. In some places, damaged roads were seen cordoned off with ropes. As the DHA City Karachi project was launched on a semi-hilly piece of land, at some places pieces of hills were seen fallen on the lower lying areas.
‘DHA NOT ACCEPTABLE’:
Just one kilometre away from the project site, billboards and hoardings were seen chalked with slogans ‘DHA is not acceptable’. When the residents of the adjoining areas were interviewed, they claimed that the army is trying to increase its presence by launching housing project in the area.
They were of the view that the DHA City Karachi is extending the project as they acquired 8,000 acres of land in 2014 and that the extension of the project is a threat to the rural culture.
“We will not allow anyone to destroy our culture and will take steps if need to save our decades of norms and values,” they added.
DHA City Karachi has two villages within its boundary wall; Haji Allahdad Goth and Kareemdad Goth. When the residents of the two villages were questioned about this project, they said they had not been forced to vacate the land by the project management.
“We have been living here for a decade and will not leave at any cost,” they said.
NOTHING LACKING IN CONSTRUCTION OR DESIGN:
Talking to Pakistan Today in his office, DHA Administrator Brig Zubair Ahmed said that the DHA had tried to ensure the best engineering practices in the design and construction of the DHA City Karachi’s infrastructure. The DHA administrator praised the efforts of Pakistan Today in identifying infrastructure problems of the DHA City Karachi.
“Despite our efforts, some loopholes have surfaced in the infrastructure, but we are tackling these faults seriously,” Brig Ahmed claimed, adding, “We are looking at whether it was the weather, design or materials that caused the problems.”
“There is usually no rain in Karachi, but this year the city received heavy showers which created problems,” Brig Zubair said, adding, “Rainwater devastated infrastructure in the US and China too, so, we can’t underestimate the water’s destructive qualities.”
However, Brig Zubair rejected impression that the locals were unhappy about the project and maintained that the DHA City has included two villages within the city which fall in Sector 6 and the theme park respectively and that it had established a school and a dispensary for the residents of the two areas.
“Not one protest has been held against the DHA City Karachi since the start of the project, even though people have protested against other projects,” he pointed out.
The DHA administrator claimed that the locals are supporting the DHA and that they, in turn, are creating job opportunities for them.
“DHA is a trendsetter and we are reaping rewards of the credibility we earned in the past,” Brig Ahmed said, and pointed out that the prices of plots of the DHA had escalated 400pc in the last two years which indicated the success of the project.
