Islamabad slums thinking out of the Box

As reported in the media a recent survey on the ’Katchi Abadis’ in and around the capital is 24 with 13,521 families consisting of 84,591.They have been officially declared as a security risk and fast becoming hubs of notorious activities so they have to be dealt with as soon as possible it adds. This is indeed a big number. There resettlement and making them live like respectable ordinary citizens should be the prime responsibility of the State of Pakistan. This is the labour force that makes Islamabad look clean and green. What can be possible out of the box solutions for them so that they live as respectable citizens and keep contributing to Islamabad’s economy?

The sprouting up of huge housing schemes on the outskirts of Islamabad has been swift whatever the reasons for this might be they all have one thing in common they are not made for average lower middle class and middle class Pakistani citizens. To name a few the snobby Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Islamabad covering an area of 48951500 Sq Yards, The mighty Gulberg Greens (GG) farm housing scheme covering about 1931000 Sq.yards, another GG residential scheme covering up to 7500000 Sq. Yards, the elegant and neat Naval Anchorage 669500 Sq. Yards and believe me there are more the National Police Foundation, the exclusive Park Enclave and the one of its kind Naval Farm houses near the picturesque Simly Dam. Most of them with their own state of the art clubs, parks, business enclaves, some with golf courses. Then it’s the new sectors of CDA the Ezz, the Fs, the Gs.

My question why could the CDA just gift a small sector and construct cheap elegant housing for these people shifting them phase wise? Or better ask the owners of these huge residential estates to allocate at least 15,000 Sq. yards each to settle them.

This can solve the following problems for CDA i.e. most of the workers and families can be documented and registered. All foreigners from any country can be identified staying illegally. Since all of these mega housing schemes are gated with their own security mechanisms the movement of suspicious people can be under constant surveillance. This will also create job opportunities for them as most of these residential estates are in need of raw labour to work as maids, gardeners, drivers etc.

Now about who is going to fund all this, that is very simple I am sure many residing in the main sectors of Islamabad are not so poor citizens of Pakistan. I am sure CDA can tax a few owners of the commercial markets, the banks, the multinationals. I am sure most multinational companies that have their head offices in Blue Area and brag a lot about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can contribute handsome amounts to this initiative. I am sure many private donors running NGOs will now finally come to the help of these marginalized poor people instead of sitting in their cool offices writing reports to their head offices about community mobilization, gender equality, child labour etc. They can actually put their plans in to action.

All it needs is a proactive approach, thinking out of the box we are all citizens of Pakistan and everyone is entitled to live a peaceful life in this land of the pure.

Note: The cheers of Pakistan Zindabad, Jeve Jeve Pakistan by about 1 million Pakistanis still echo in slums of Dacca.

Metro Buss Islamabad-Rawalpindi-Another experiment in our strategic vision

Recently our worthy democratically elected government is embarking on an ambitious Rs 44 Billion  project to build a bridge that would connect Rawalpindi to the capital of Pakistan i.e. Islamabad via an overhead bridge on Murree Road with buses plying on it and entering in to the capital city via 9th avenue and finally culminating on Jinnah Avenue called the Metro Buss Project.

No doubt this will be a landmark project for the twin cities for commuters plying daily that go through a daily torture traveling between the twin cities through private public transport. In a nutshell  this project will have huge bridges with tarmacs and buses plying over them. This is my non expert development
opinion about the project in general .

Introduction to Rapid Mass Transport Systems: 
Let me give you a brief introduction to Rapid Transit for mass commuters. 

Rapid Transit is a concept we generally refer to high speed transportation systems using high speed trains/Trams carriages for commuters in densely populated urban areas. This brings in the rolling stock concept high speed train engines, carriages, tracks and stations both over ground and underground with multiple entries and exits. This is generally meant for middle/low income citizens that have to reach their respective work places on time. In the process they avoid road traffic; traffic jams, cost of owning a transport and cost of fuel to name a few.

Long Term and Short Term development plan: 
Long term and short term impacts of such projects should always be taken in to account. I also read that there has been an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for this project and public hearings as well. In most countries such projects take years to plan chalking out each and every possible irritant and its mitigation once the project goes on line. We have to be super humans to plan and execute a project that will directly or indirectly affect the lives of at least a million people living in the twin cities in just 8 months. To my knowledge only the detailed project plan and FEED (Front end engineering and design) will take years to create. Let alone the actual implementation and then we have the everlasting threat of terrorism that might have over taken all other concerns to a genuinely civilized democratic dispensation.

To me if only buses have to be employed to reach a certain destination than anyone who has driven in Islamabad or has visited it must have noticed that on every main artery of Islamabad and Rawalpindi there are buss lanes why not spend a fraction of the amount being used for the project to effectively utilize them instead of making such a huge infrastructure. Why not ply these super sized Turkish buses on the same routes marking and improving the quality of buss stops on these routes.

Any thinking democratic government would have thought the sustainability of such a huge project. A mere EIA does not even count in such projects. Scenario planners, transportation planners, material planners, environmental planners work day and night to come to common understanding if we exclude economic and financial concerns.

Competitiveness and Human Capital Debate: 
While there are many things that can be debated one of my major concern is Pakistani Universities are producing technical graduates at a rapid pace. These technical graduates need to be provided with latest technology exposure so that they may become our future human capital. Nearly all developing countries bring in new technology to let their human capital grow with such projects. Giving you a simple example of a buss that will ply on this route what new technology does it bring with it? The buss will need a change of tires, clutch plates, seats, oil and filters. In technical layman terms it will need preventive maintenance. How many engineering fields are opening up to your young technical graduates in this scenario? How many if any of its components are from companies whose turnover is more than the entire GDP of Pakistan?

Foregoing other aspects that are beneficial from high speed metro train transit systems a minor example of the technology, it brings advanced electronics and signalling, composite materials for carriage, specialized steels for wheels and tracks. electrical panels of most advanced technology, braking systems that no one in Pakistan has seen before. Which companies will it bring in? Bombardier, Alstom, ABB, SKF to name a very few. There are hundreds of them in Canada, USA, Japan, France and Germany. All of them willing to be competitive if and when an opportunity arises bringing in their own set of technical expertise and investment to get a slight foothold in the market. Once these companies are here and few do become your trade partners they will look up to expand their market share for areas of growth and partnership. It can be joint research and development; it can be components to other industrial sectors that these companies produce; it can be job and growth opportunities for young graduates learning new technology design and commissioning. It is an opportunity for them to produce many components locally to achieve a competitive advantage. It can be a chance for our own industry to diversify themselves to producing components that they can compete with. I will give another example of this; from 2003 till 2008 many political economists criticized the state of economy making it consumption driven and what not without even factoring the price of oil that had jumped from $60 to a staggering $140 in just 4 months. Yes to a certain extent it was but just to make few eyebrows move compare a Dawlance fridge with a Haier fridge in 2003 now in 2014. Tell me what will be your personal preference if you live in Pakistan. Compare the quality and models of Hinopak truck/buss with an imported Nissan truck/buss in 2003 and now. There is a marked change in the locally built models of Paksuzuki, Gandhara Nissan, Atlas Honda and Indus Motors (Toyota). There is single factor competitiveness and competitiveness is the golden word driving innovation that in turn makes industrial growth sustainable, resilient and robust in long term.

While listening to various news channels some time ago when this project was under discussion, our democratically elected prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of Raiwind approved the project on being informed that the bridge structure can also support a rail track in future. I was amazed at the sheer logic of this rationale it means we are planning such a huge infrastructure project only to adjust it in future to rolling stock (Metro Train) then why not plan it the way it will be utilized for ultimately why wasting such a huge chunk of public money now? Moreover will a single bridge manage to solve the problems of traffic and daily pains of most commuters coming from all different directions in to the capital to ride on a single track or its just a way of getting the staff of PM secretariat on time to salute their elected representatives? That too at the cost of uprooting one city called Rawalpindi and destroying the environment of the other called Islamabad. Did anyone of the said bureaucrats have the courage to put up the Islamabad master plan and if any such project is even allowed by CDA bypassing the master plan and CDA by laws. If this goes through next thing we will see is Islamabad ring road project. Now this ring road logic also comes from none other than the Halal dollars & date producing fields in kingdoms of Heaven. I am sure most of the readers can Google the ring roads in Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Doha plus the lone obsolete Metro Buss project in Istanbul Turkey.

Till when will this country run on adhockism and personal whims of a few. Why cant we try to do things right from the start? Our dear minister for planning, development and institutional reform was part of this project’s clearance if this is the standard of planning of one of the most highly qualified lawmaker of the ruling party who also heads the planning commission imagine what must be going on in the finance ministry and state bank of Pakistan.

Note: A special note for our dear legally and constitutionally elected prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (the duke of Raiwind Sharif). Islamabad is the only city in Pakistan that is neither a gift of a Mughal emperor nor a British general. It is the only indigenous city of Pakistan that Pakistanis from all ages & all walks of life take pride in please do not turn it in to another kingdom of heaven. In our country we are masters at developing to self destruction for the readers not long ago trams were in Karachi Saddar and a circular railway and Government Transport Service (GTS) existed. Unfortunately we are the only country in the world to have finished its public transport system instead of enhancing it.