Illegal expansion of Industrial zones into designated urban areas

 

Author: Syed Talha Tahir Ali

Introduction:

The objective of this article is to highlight the illegal intervening of industrial zones in the residential areas in the city of Karachi and issues the residents are facing due to this illegal expansion of industrial zone into their designated residential schemes and projects

Targeted Area: New Karachi Industrial Area, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan affecting surrounding residential areas including, New Karachi Township, North Karachi Township, Federal “B” Area, Bufferzone (North Nazimabad Town)

According to the Master Plan of the Karachi City there were specific areas designated for industrial zones, one of those designated industrial zones was “New Karachi Industrial Area (NKIA)” assigned for the industries to get established, these are the coordinates of NKIA 24.9642° N, 67.0844° E, and it is having 4,500 industrial units. Problem started lying when the residential schemes around the area started to get emerged and the population of these residential areas raised as following (as per Pakistan census 2017):

·         Federal B Area 453,490

·         New Karachi Town: 680,000

·         Bufferzone (North Nazimabad):108,000

·         Total Population effected: 12,41,490

Now around 1.24 million people are living around this industrial zone, main problem started to get emerged when NKIA expanded its area illegally means land designated for industrial zone was occupied completely and after occupying the whole designated area they started to establish industrial units in the residential areas as well, some of these industries are lying right adjacent or opposite to the residential units, accident appears in these intervened areas almost every day, due to the low quality and reliability of industrial machinery, equipment, electrical in-house wiring and other utilities of these industrial units, short circuits and other accidents appear results in fire catching accidents frequently.

Health and safety measures in these industrial zones are also showing very miserable condition, following are the immunities immediately lying around and under NKIA

·         Hospitals

·         Mosques

·         Schools & Colleges

·         Universities

·         Community and Party Clubs etc

All of the above public places are exposed to these industrial zone and are highly endangered due to the industrial activities performing in NKIA,

Similarly if we go through the Korangi Industial Area (KIA), you will see quite a different picture, comparatively it is a very large area dedicated and designated for the industrial zone, and satellite map is attached for your reference showing that the KIA is situated with appropriate distance from residential schemes and also not intervening into any existing residential, coordinates of Korangi Industrial Area are 24.8392° N, 67.1209° E. Head Office of provincial environmental protection department namely Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) is also situated in KIA and SEPA has remained quite successful in maintaining the discipline and norms of Environmental Health and Safety Management in KIA particularly.

Now SEPA and other authorities need to look into the NKIA’s matter of illegal expansion seriously, and need to take mitigation and corrective measures immediately to stop the expansion and to remove the industrial units lying closed to the residential units and other immunities as it is vulnerable for the population of these 1.24 million already suffering due to the bad quality manufacturing and production activities of industries lying in NKIA.