Hello, people of Karachi! Over the past 15 days, you have been sharing with us the areas in the city where roads need repairs. This story is gaining momentum and now with your help, we have identified the 54 locations where roads are damaged.

• Below you will find the Google map, where we are marking both broken and damaged roads. Zoom in and tap to see the information
• Red 🔴 is for broken roads, and Blue 🔵 is for repaired roads

In addition, the following post reveals the results of the poll.

This data prompted the institutions to share the road locations with Aaj News, where the Sindh government, through the World Bank’s Competitive and Livable City of Karachi (Click) project, worth $652 million, in response to the rain emergency, carried out carpeting work.

Earlier, Click’s Technical Manager Azmat Khan told us that they are “investing” around Rs5 billion in road maintenance for the rain emergency.

Now, Khan informed us that the government used World Bank funds to carry out carpeting work at 92 locations, which were proposed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the seven DMCs of the mega city.

But the executing and tendering of the work are in the hands of KMC, he added.

He further explained that their focus is on patchwork to repair the potholes on the roads, and only a few roads are completely rehabilitated. According to him, they attempted to cover all districts within the limits of the available funds.

As per the list provided to us by Khan, below is the number of roads repaired in five districts:

• 23 in District Central
• 23 in District East
• 32 in District South
• 10 in districts Korangi and Malir

They claimed to have repaired the eight roads, where the KMC is responsible for maintenance.

Khan also spoke about the role of Click’s officials in this development work, saying: “It is true that the World Bank’s funds are being utilised for this carpeting work, but the contractor receives payment through the KMC [Karachi Metropolitan Corporation].”

“Technically speaking, our job is to receive a bill, it is accompanied by a copy of the consultant’s report. We review it to ensure that there are no flaws in the contractual application documents. We check if the contractor has paid for insurance or not. Occasionally, we also ask the consultant if the number of items mentioned for roads construction will not be exhausted and, if it is, whether a variation has been made for it or not. That’s all we do,” said the Click’s technical manager.

How is the bill for the development work paid?

Khan said: “The contractors submit their bills to the consultant and after that, the consultant’s engineer thoroughly verifies it, and they submit the bill to the KMC. The director general of technical services at the KMC marks the bill to their focal person, who then sends it to the executive engineer. The executive engineer records the bill through their subordinate and notes it down in the MB [a measurement book in which government authorities or organisations can record the actual measurements of works completed by the contractor]. Then, the KMC staff visits the site to check if the bill sent by the consultant is correct or not.”

It is the responsibility of KMC and the consultant to check whether the bill is correct or not, he added. “Once the bill is recorded and verified in the MB, it becomes the official government bill, which we receive along with the consultant’s copy, while the MB is kept by the KMC.”