The Government of Sindh and the (People and Nature Initiative (PANI), a non-governmental organization, have signed an agreement to begin the Nehr-e-Khayyam Park development work.
Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that after a long struggle for an environmentally friendly facility to improve the appearance of the city, his government was able to start working with PANI.
Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah, CM Advisor Murtaza Wahab, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, Local Government Secretary Roshan Shaikh, water board MD Asadullah Khan, Karachi Development Authority DG Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, architect Hamir Soomro, PANI President Shahid Abullah and Secretary Jameel Yusuf took part in the meeting.
The Government-PANI agreement was signed at the CM House during the conference. The signatories were the KDA’s PANI President Shahid Abullah, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, Local Government Secretary Roshan Shaikh, KWSB’s Asadullah Khan and KDA’s Dr Saif-ur-Rehamn.
PANI had suggested cleaning up the waste water that flows into the canal through the sustainable raised bed technology that has been used in many countries, including the Karachi in Pakistan.
NESPAK will supply the engineering design for the project according to a press release. PANI has suggested planting hundreds of trees and bushes on either side of the one-kilometer long canal and building jogging paths and viewing decks that are accessible to the public as a leisure facility.
“Under the leadership of the chief minister, this has been an excellent initiative for the youth of the country to participate as well as the many stakeholders who are endorsing this activity with both their time and expertise,” the press statement said.
The main issue of the chief minister at the meeting was to treat sewage water and avoid more contamination and create an urban forest in the City Center for the enjoyment of the public in a green and environmentally friendly environment.
“The migratory birds that frequent adjacent mangroves will also have a larger area to occupy and breed.”
The CM’s environmental advisor Barrister Murtaza Wahab and the architect Hamir Soomro played an important role in bringing this initiative forward with the Sindh government, it said.
