Showing posts with label karachi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karachi. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

After an August drenching, Karachi confronts rising flood risk

October 18, 2017 0

KARACHI : 
In late August, a month of rain fell on Karachi in two days, leaving tenants swimming through belly significant water, amidst backed off vehicles and the collections of dead animals floating through the streets. 
A normal 40 people kicked the basin, and power, phones and water supplies were irritated for a significant long time, in a fiasco acknowledged to have caused 300 billion Pakistan rupees ($2.8 billion) in hurt. 
By and by close-by and typical specialists are making the city's at first surge organization plan, with a true objective to ensure such a disaster does not happen afresh. At the point of convergence of the course of action is a push to clear the city's enormous whirlwind water drainage system, which has well ordered ended up being discouraged with squander and seen outlets to the sea fixed by unlawful improvement along leakage channels. 
"Rash change hones around the city's hurricane water channels and sewer structure are specifically truly stifling the city's trademark seepage frameworks, the effect of which is more articulated urban flooding, as found in the city in August," said Noman Ahmed, a urban facilitator and authority of the layout and arranging office at the NED College of Building and Innovation.
Blocked Channels 
Starting not very far in the past, Karachi's leakage hallways, which twist through the city's 18 town domains, have worked practically satisfactorily to pass on both water and wastewater from homes, associations and ventures through the city and to flush the profluent – a substantial part of it untreated – out to sea. 
Regardless, the rapidly creating city now conveys 12,000 tons of deny each day, with that typical to create to 16,000 tons by 2020, as showed by the Sindh Strong Waste Administration Board. Of that, "selective 10 for every penny of the garbage is accumulated, leaving the remaining to end up in the city's waste and sewerage systems for need of agreeable resources," said Promotion Sanjani, the heap up's regulating boss. 
He said gathering and discarding all the incident at landfills would cost about $276,000 a day – cash the city does not need to spend. The postponed outcome of that trouble twisted up obviously clear after 100 mm of rainstorm rain fell on Karachi on Aug. 30 and 31, leaving basically 70 for every penny of the city with waist huge flooding.
Associations in central Karachi close for three days, and many in low-lying zones were out of operation for a significant period of time. Experts at the Karachi Assembly of Trade and Industry assess that that the calamity caused $2.8 billion in damages to soaked mechanical domains, corporate work environments, business centers, homes and open transports composes, and submerged more than 20,000 shops in a collection of business divisions. 
Karachi makes close segment of Pakistan's national wage and obligation salary, said M. Ashraf Janjua, a past agent administrative pioneer of the State Bank of Pakistan. Abdul Rashid, head of the Pakistan Meteorological's office in Karachi, said the late August precipitation was not too considerable that it should have caused such no matter how you look at it flooding. 
The city survived two heavier rainstorm precipitation spells – of 200 mm in 1977 and 166 mm in 1979 – without veritable submersion, he said. The present year's disaster, he expressed, was a man made issue. In its pre-summer rainstorm perspective amid the present year, released in June, his association forewarned of likely sporadic tempest rains that could trigger surges. In any case, city masters fail to clear ceased up squander frameworks in time, the scientist said. 
"Had city experts scoured the spillage structure, the aggregating of water could have avoided changing into colossal urban flooding, the most exceedingly repulsive calamity in about the most recent three decades," Rashid said. 
Plan to cut dangers 
Karachi Metropolitan Enterprise Leader Washim Akhtar said the flooding has woken up the customary government to the city's making surge hazard and to the need to set up an arrangement to avoid such debacles later on. That arrangement is starting at now being made by metropolitan and essential masters, with assistance from non-definitive affiliations, he said. 
"With the help of the game plan now being limited, we can in any occasion diminish the impacts of such phenomenal events on people, their jobs, open structure, utilities and the vehicle course of action of the city, so the cash related wheel continues continuing forward unlimited," he said. 
In August, around two weeks as of now the surge, Head supervisor Shahid Khaqan Abbasi declared 25 billion Pakistani rupees for a Karachi movement bundle portrayed out to some degree to refresh the city's wiped out open foundation, including its waste and sewer structures. The effort intends to make the city more grounded to unbelievable atmosphere events, particularly flooding, twisters and the impacts of sea level climb. 
Any fruitful course of action to oversee surge danger must fuse restrictions on improvement on or close drains and an augmentation of waste pickup in the city, said Zahid Farooq, joint official of the Urban Asset Center, an a Karachi-based non-authoritative affiliation that advances flexible urban orchestrating. As showed by the Sindh Katchi Abadi Expert that arrangements with Karachi's ghetto regions, the city has around 5,640 ghetto extends, most of them worked along the city's storm water channels. 
"Any official game plan that handles these issues and prompts solid waste organization programs went for clearing these storm water channels of the seasons of waste dumped into them and encroachments around them will acknowledged help bolster the city's urban surge flexibility," Farooq said. 
Appropriated In Express Tribune

Friday, October 13, 2017

Karachi among world's safest cities, but at the last spot

October 13, 2017 0

Karachi has secured a slot among the top 60 safest cities in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s The Safe Cities Index 2017, but the one at the very bottom.

Pakistan financial hub ranked 60th with an overall score of 38.77.
It ranked last for health security and personal security, and had the highest frequency and severity of terrorist attacks.
Tokyo tops the overall ranking, scoring 89.8, with its strongest performance is in the digital security category while it has risen seven points in the health security category since 2015. However, in infrastructure security, it has fallen out of the top ten, to 12th.

Singapore received a score of 89.64, and Osaka 88.87. Toronto, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Sydney, Stockholm, Hong Kong, and Zurich also made it to the top 10.
Yangon in Myanmar came in second last with a score of 46.47. Dhaka, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Caracas, Quito, Tehran, Cairo, and Johannesburg were also at the bottom of the list.
The US performed well in digital security, but the country’s infrastructure negatively affected its rankings this year. No US city was among the top 10 – San Francisco, at 15, was the only one in the top 20.
It is observed in the report that in many cities, security is falling rather than rising. With two exceptions (Madrid, which is up 13 points and Seoul, up six), cities tend to have fallen in the index since 2015 (for example, New York is down 11, Lima is down 13, Johannesburg is down nine, Ho Chi Minh City is down ten and Jakarta is down 13.
Asian and European cities remain at the top of the index. Of the cities in the top ten positions in the overall index, four are East Asian cities (Tokyo, Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong), while three (Amsterdam, Stockholm and Zurich) are European.
Asia and the Middle East and Africa dominate the bottom of the index. Dhaka, Yangon and Karachi are at the bottom of the list. Of the 10 cities at the bottom of the overall index, three are in South-east Asia (Manila, Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta), two are in South Asia (Dhaka and Karachi) and two are in the Middle East and Africa (Cairo and Tehran).
Security remains closely linked to wealth but the scores of high-income cities are falling. While cities in developed economies dominate the top half of the index (with the lower half dominated by cities in poorer countries), of the 14 cities in high-income countries, the security scores of 10 have fallen since 2015.
Income is not the only factor governing city performance on security:.Most of the cities in the top ten of the index are high-income or upper middle-income cities. However, two high-income cities in the Middle East (Jeddah and Riyadh) fall below position 40 in the index.
The report is based on the second iteration of the index, which ranks 60 cities across 49 indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure security and personal security.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

One track of Karachi's Submarine Chowrangi underpass to be opened Nov 15

October 12, 2017 0

KARACHI: 

The completion of the first phase of the Karachi Package and initiation of the second phase will change the face of the city, promised Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.


During a meeting on Wednesday to review the progress of the Karachi package, he said the city has already become peaceful and now it will become one of the most beautiful cities in the country.
“The completion of the underpass at Submarine Chowrangi has taken a long time. It must be completed soon,” said Shah, expressing concern over the slow pace of work
In response, Local Government Minister Jam Khan Shoro said that he had visited the underpass and learned that one track would be open for traffic on November 15.
Karachi Project Director Niaz Soomro assured the chief minister that the track would be opened as Shoro had said and promised that work on the other track would be started as soon as possible.
Informing the meeting about the progress on the bridge at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gizri Boulevard, Shoro said the project would be completed at a cost of Rs700 million. All its legal formalities have been completed, he assured.
The chief minister directed Soomro to start work by November 15. “I want to lay its foundation stone,” he said.
Soomro said that the technical evaluation report has been uploaded on the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s website and work would be started in November, on target.
While giving briefings about the projects, officials said they will start construction of various other projects in November. This includes the construction of the road from Fawara Chowk to Garden via Abdullah Haroon Road and back to Fawara Chowk via Zaibunnisa Street. For this, the government has allocated Rs650 million.
Other projects include construction of the road from Tank Chowk to the Super Highway via Thado Nalla at a cost of Rs650 million. Prequalification for the project has been completed, said the officials. The reconstruction of Tipu Sultan Road from Sharae Faisal to Karsaz at a cost of Rs280 million, construction of a bridge at the intersection of Tipu Sultan and Khalid Bin Waleed roads at Shaheed-e-Millat Road at a cost of Rs1.5 billion and widening of Stadium Road from University Road to Rashid Minhas Road at a cost of Rs270 million.
Construction of remodeling of 12000 Road in Landhi Korangi at a cost of Rs1.5 billion and the improvement plan for the Rs240 million roads around the Cantt Railway Station are also on the agenda.
The chief minister said the two most important projects that will affect the image of the city are those at the Cantt Station and airport. When people from other cities and countries land at our airport or step out of Cantt Station they see the poor state of our roads and form a poor impression of our city, he said. “It is most important for me to develop both these areas,” he told participants of the meeting.
The chief minister said that he has a beautification plan for all flyovers and bridges in the city. The flyover at Jinnah Terminal is our top priority, he clarified.
Work on storm water drains from Star Gate to Chakora Nalla and Sharae Faisal at a cost of Rs200 million and from Hassan Sqaure to the Lyari River at a cost of Rs70 million will be started by the beginning of November.
Shah directed Soomro to expedite the work on the first phase of the Karachi package.
Among others who attended the meeting included Planning and Development Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Shoro, Planning and Development Chairperson Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to the CM Sohail Rajput and Soomro.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

NEPRA increases K-Electric’s tariff, but the company isn’t pleased

October 11, 2017 0

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has increased the multi-year base tariff for K-Electric by Rs0.70 per unit, but it falls short of expectations of the power utility that sought a rate of Rs15.5 per unit.

At present, K-Electric’s end-consumer tariff is Rs12.07 per unit, which will go up to Rs12.77. The new tariff will come into effect retrospectively from July 2016. In a statement, however, K-Electric said the higher base tariff would have no impact on the end-consumer tariff in line with the uniform tariff policy implemented across Pakistan.
In its petition, K-Electric had sought a tariff increase up to Rs15.57 per unit for operational sustainability. However, Nepra turned down the request, increasing the tariff to Rs12.07 per unit in March 2017.
Thereafter, K-Electric filed a review petition and after conducting hearings, the regulator increased the tariff to Rs12.7706 per unit.

The multi-year tariff will be applicable for seven years starting from July 1, 2016 and ending on June 30, 2023.
In its decision, the regulator said K-Electric would hire an independent engineer for conducting heat rate tests within six months after the date of notification of the instant tariff determination.
Nepra will approve the selection process and appointment of the engineer whereas tests will be conducted in the presence of Nepra professionals as observers. Adjustment in heat rates will be made based on results of the performance test.
Nepra did not allow K-Electric any provision for including the cost of doubtful debts in tariff, but allowed the company to write off bad debts at the rate of 1.69% of its assessed sales revenue.
For actual write-off in the future, K-Electric will adopt the procedure set by the regulator.
Under this programme, electricity connection will be cut off for more than three years and due process of law for the recovery of outstanding bills will be followed.
In case where the ownership of a premises is disputed, K-Electric will certify that it has made its best efforts to recover the outstanding bills, but the amount is not recoverable. Then, the amount will be considered for write-off.
The amount to be written off will be approved by the board of directors of K-Electric.
Other income, excluding the impact of late payment charges, interest on bank deposits and meter rent, has been removed from the base tariff assessment. K-Electric will pay interest earned on security deposits to the consumers through electricity bills.
Nepra directed K-Electric to stop collecting meter rent in future from those consumers who pay the meter cost. It allowed K-Electric a total investment of Rs298.915 billion for the seven-year tariff period in its generation, transmission and distribution systems.
Nepra will undertake a mid-term review after four years of the tariff control period and in case of lower-than-expected investment and performance by K-Electric, the base rate adjustment component may be adjusted.
Nepra also set the percentage of transmission and distribution (T&D) losses over the seven-year tariff control period.
K-Electric has been allowed 20.90% T&D loss in the first year, 19.80% in the second year, 18.75% in third year, 17.76% in fourth year, 16.80% in fifth year, 15.95% in sixth year and 15.36% in seventh year.
“K-Electric is currently evaluating the determination and will pursue its future course of action accordingly,” the spokesperson said.
Published in The Express Tribune

Rising temperatures: Heatwave to continue till Friday

October 11, 2017 0


Coastal areas of the country, including Karachi, are likely to continue to face heatwave till Friday with the temperature expected to rise a few more degrees in the coming days.



Based on the warnings issued by PMD, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday issued heatwave advisory and directed all the authorities concerned to take precautionary measures in order to avoid any untoward situation. NDMA is constantly monitoring the situation, according to the handout issued by the disaster management authority.
“It is expected that the temperatures in coastal areas including Karachi will increase further in the next two days, though the humidity level will not rise,” said chief of PMD Dr Ghulam Rasul.
While talking to The Express Tribune, he said that considering the current weather patterns it is expected that the heatwave will end by Friday.

“It is expected that from Saturday temperatures will start falling in coastal areas including Karachi as the wind will start blowing from sea to land,” he said. Rasul said that from Saturday onwards the temperatures will fall from 40°C to 35°C to 36°C.
While commenting on the prevailing weather situation he said that usually Pakistan experiences such heat waves during October and November.
“It is expected that the ongoing dry spell will continue across the country till next week and country may face water shortage in the coming months,” he said.
“Currently inflow of water in two main reservoirs of the country is very low while outflow is high. Temperatures in northern areas have dropped due to which glaciers have stopped melting,” he said.
A low intensity short rain spell is expected after a week in upper parts of the country and north east Punjab which will further bring temperature down in the region but would not be sufficient enough to fill water reservoirs, he said.
Slightly below normal rainfall is predicted in most parts of Pakistan during the month, moreover two to three spells of rain with light to moderate intensity are expected in different parts of the country.
Temperatures are likely to remain above normal due to relatively clear skies.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Parts of Karachi facing load-shedding of upto 12 hours

October 10, 2017 0

The duration of load-shedding in several areas of the metropolis has extended till up to 12 hours. Tripped feeders, cables and technical faults have led to prolonged power outages.

A surge in the temperature in the city for the past two days has increased demand for and use of electricity and a simultaneous increase in unprecedented and unannounced power suspensions.
So far, the K-Electric (K-E) administration has failed to counter the power predicament. The city is experiencing seven and a half hour-long announced power suspensions, but with the rise in the temperature, the power suspensions have surpassed 12 hours in some areas.
Korangi, Landhi, Majeed Colony, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Ahsanabad, North Karachi, Surjani Town, Baldia Town, Saeedabad, Keamari, Gadap, Old City Area, Shireen Jinnah Colony and several other areas remain affected due to feeder tripping, faulty cables and technical faults.

Lucknow Society in Korangi area faced approximately 16 hours of power suspension in the last couple of days. The suburban areas of the city continue to face the same problems.
Areas usually unaffected by power outages are also facing interrupted power supply due to what K-E claims is ‘maintenance and feeder tripping’.
Meanwhile, the K-E spokesperson stated that there has beenuninterrupted power supply in the city and technical faults should not be termed load-shedding. The K-E team is available 24 hours to render maintenance services, he added.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

‘Clean Karachi’ drive in full swing, earns praise

October 08, 2017 0

KARACHI: 
Bahria Town has received accolades for the quality of cleaning work and lifting of thousands of tonnes of garbage since the commencement of its 2nd ‘Clean Karachi’ campaign on October 3, 2017, says a statement issued by the Bahria Town Karachi on Saturday.


The ‘Clean Karachi Campaign’ kicked off from the Central District of Karachi. The areas that come under this district are further divided into four zones – Liaquatabad, New Karachi, Gulberg and North Nazimabad.
More than 12,000 tonnes of garbage has already been lifted from zone one – Liaquatabad – and dumped in the official dumping site of Jam Chakro.
Upon th
e completion of work in Liaquatabad, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar visited the area and showed immense satisfaction over the quality and extent of cleaning work.

“Not only did Bahria Town stand firmly with the people of Karachi but each and every member of the Bahria Town team showed enthusiasm and willingness in performing the task to perfection,” the mayor said.
“It was definitely not an easy task to clean a huge area such as Liaquatabad in this short span of time yet the Bahria Town team managed to achieve the target and did so with utmost dedication for which I would like to congratulate them,” he added.
On the occasion, Bahria Town GM Commander Zulfiqar Memon said, “We have received complete cooperation from the residents and on numerous occasions people stopped over and shared their gratitude and well wishes for Bahria Town and Malik Riaz Hussain Sahab. We are also trying our level best to fulfil the promise that Malik Sahab made to the people of Karachi.”
He said, “After completion of cleaning work in zone one today, we are moving to New Karachi which is our zone two and we pray that we achieve success in lifting the garbage in record time over there as well. And I must add here that we have received strong support from Chairman DMC Central throughout for which we are very grateful.”

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Karachi placed 7th in global survey

October 07, 2017 0

Karachi has secured 7th position in the top 15 Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future survey under the FDI Strategy category for 2017-18, an incredible increase from its 14th position in 2015-16.

The findings are part of a survey, ‘fDi’s Asia-Pacific Cities of the future 2017-18’, conducted by the fDi Intelligence division of the Financial Times to determine economic prospects of the cities in the region.
The FDI Strategy category of the survey is the only qualitative category, and does not feed into the overall result. This is the sixth category for which there were 15 submissions. In the previous rankings, FDI Strategy had been included in the overall ranking.
According to the survey, Perth, Australia, secured the first position in the FDI Strategy list while Brisbane, Australia, and Hong Kong came on second and third position respectively. Other cities in the list include Auckland, New Zealand, (4th position), Wuxi, China, (5th), Melbourne, Australia, (6th), Yokohama, Japan, (8th), Newcastle, Australia, (9th) and Osaka, Japan, (10th).

“Due to painstaking efforts and strong determination, we have been ranked seventh in terms of FDI Strategy,” said KCCI President Muffasar Atta Malik.
He said that the Karachi Chamber first participated in fDi Intelligence survey last year by providing valuable inputs about Karachi. Consequently, our city managed to secure the 14th position in the top 15 Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2015-16 – FDI Strategy, which has greatly improved this year.
Malik said that Karachi has left behind many prominent cities around the world including Yokohama (Japan), Newcastle (Australia) and Osaka (Japan) who are ranked 8th, 9th and 10th, respectively in the Top 10 FDI Strategy Asia-Pacific cities of the future 2017-18.
Karachi has also been ranked 4th in terms of cost effectiveness in the list of Top 5 Asia-Pacific Mega Cities of the future 2017-18 by the fDi Intelligence. Lahore also made it to the list and secured the 5th position.
Appreciation his R&D department for providing credible input to fDi Intelligence, which has helped in diluting many misconceptions about Karachi, the president said that it was undoubtedly a notable achievement for the city.
“KCCI has been struggling hard for the past many years to promote the positive image of Karachi and highlight it as the right destination for foreign investment.”
He said that he is fairly optimistic that Karachi will be able to secure even higher ranks in future as the city has gained further business momentum.
Overall Top 10 Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2017-18

In the overall ranking, Singapore once again took fDi’s crown as Asia-Pacific city of the Future, while Tokyo retained its second place and Hong Kong rose to third position. On the other hand, Seoul got 4th position, Shanghai 5th, Taipei 6th, Beijing 7th, Sydney 8th, Osaka 9th, and Kuala Lumpur came in at 10th position.
To create a shortlist for fDi’s Asia-Pacific Cities of the Future 2017-18, the fDi Intelligence collected data using specialist online tools fDi Markets and fDi Benchmark. In total, 163 locations were analysed for the study.
Published in The Express Tribune

Karachi likely to experience heatwave from today

October 07, 2017 0

The city is likely to experience a five-day heatwave from today. According to the spokesperson of the Pakistan Meteorological department, Abdul Rashid, due to low pressure in the Arabian Sea off the Indian coast, the sea breeze along the Pakistani coastline will lessen.

He explained that in such conditions, temperatures in the Pakistani coastal areas, including Karachi, will gradually increase during the next four to five days, resulting in moderate heatwave conditions.
Daytime temperatures in Karachi may cross 40°Celsius on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Rashid, assuring that the Met department will keep the public and authorities informed three days before any heatwave hits the city.
Rashid also said that citizens should take necessary precautions to save themselves from the heat and avoid leaving their houses unnecessarily.
However, the Met department has stated that during the warm and dry weather, they do not expect to see people experiencing heatstrokes at all.
International weather forecasters and websites are predicting that while the mercury will touch 40°C, the ‘real feel’ will be more than 45°C.
In the summer of 2015, the city experienced a deadly heatwave which claimed the lives of over 1,300 people in a mere three days.
Environmentalist and ecologist Rafiul Haq explained the concept of ‘real feel’ by giving examples of unplanned high-rise buildings and continuously decreasing tree cover, which are causes for the temperature in some areas being felt higher than it actually is. He said trees help reduce the temperature, while high-rise buildings act as a barrier to proper air flow.
The Met department also predicted that due to the suspension of the North-Western sea winds, the weather might experience some effects, such as extremely warm climate, inconsistent humidity in the air and a surge in temperatures.

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Demand from motorists drives up petrol sales

October 05, 2017 0

KARACHI: 
Fuel oil sales inched up 3% to 2.16 million tons in September 2017 primarily on the back of a significant surge in demand for petrol and diesel from motorcyclists, car and heavy vehicle owners, according to provisional data released on Wednesday.


“Year-on-year growth in POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) sales will be attributed mainly to higher retail fuel sales…where automobile sales (up 36% fiscal year to date) remain strong,” Taurus Securities commented.
Brokerage houses reported that sales of petrol (motor gasoline) rose 10.6% to 0.63 million tons in September compared to 0.57 million tons in the same month of previous year.
Similarly, high-speed diesel sales improved 7.6% to 0.67 million tons from 0.62 million tons.
However, furnace oil sales dropped 6.1% to 0.77 million tons in September from 0.82 million tons mainly due to lower demand from power producers.
“Furnace oil volumes dipped…likely due to lower furnace oil-based (power) generation as gas-based generation comes online amid availability of LNG (liquefied natural gas),” Taurus Securities added.
Pakistan State Oil (PSO) remained the market leader as its share widened to 57.57% in September from 55.34% in the same month of preceding year.
Hascol, which continued to exhibit fastest sales growth, became the second largest oil marketing company with a market share of 10.31% compared to 8.62% in September 2016.
Shell Pakistan, which was the second largest oil marketing company one year ago (September 2016) with 9.97% market share, fell to the fourth position with 5.51% share in September 2017.
Attock Petroleum Limited stood at the third place, though it lost some market share, which stood at 7.87% in September 2017 against 8.10% in September 2016.
“Going forward, strong demand for retail fuels (motor spirit and diesel) on account of continuing growth in automobile sales, lower CNG and motor spirit price differential and development activities support our positive stance on the sector,” the research house added.
Published in The Express Tribune.