Karachi: After a gap of 91 years the construction of a new City Council Hall has commenced in Karachi at one of its central locations.
Sindh Governor, Kamran Khan Tessori, along with Karachi’s Administrator, Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, and prominent residents of the city laid the foundation of the new City Council. The new hall is being built on 12 acres area in Bagh-e-Karachi (formerly Aladin Park) in Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighbourhood of the city.
The previous City Council Hall housed in the historical head office building of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was inaugurated on 7 February 1932 during the British colonial period. Initially, the hall had a seating capacity of 57 members when in 1933 Karachi was given the status of a municipal corporation.
The seating capacity in the old hall kept on increasing with the passage of time with an increase in Karachi’s local government representatives. In 2004, the hall was able to accommodate up to 255 members. The hall once again underwent expansion in August 2016 which increased its capacity to 309 members.
The present hall is not able to accommodate all the members of the City Council whose membership after the recent delimitation of constituencies in Karachi has increased to 367.
The spokesman for the KMC said the new hall would be completed in the next three years and would be able to accommodate up to 800 members. He said the new hall would be able to serve its purpose for the next 100 years.
The new building will also have the offices of the mayor, deputy mayor, council secretariat, media management wing, and a press gallery. It will be a centrally air-conditioned building with a parking facility for up to 1,000 motor vehicles. Being part of Bagh-e-Jinnah, it will not have any perimeter wall of its own for providing easy access to the citizens. It will be surrounded by tall trees from all sides.
While performing the groundbreaking of the building, the Sindh Governor hoped that the new hall would greatly facilitate the elected local government representatives in taking decisions for the development and progress of Karachi.
