Karachi roads paved with good intentions but potholed with reality

For at least two decades, Hijri Road has been a nuisance for the people who live in Gulshan Town’s Metroville Colony. So when UC 6 chairman Nasir Ashfaq managed to get the Karachi Development Authority to fix the inner neighbourhood service lane, they insisted on paver blocks this time. Three years later, sewerage still overflows from time to time, but at least by the time they clean it up there is still a road underneath the muck. “When we installed pavers, we’ve seen that the lifespan of the road increases,” said the UC chairman. “The problem hasn’t resurfaced.” Neighbourhood after neighbourhood is switching to the newer technology. End of last year, Mayor Murtaza Wahab even announced a Rs281 million push to redo roads in District Central alone. “Paver work … is now a preferred option for local union council level leadership because of its sustainability,” Wahab told Dawn. The success of an experiment at a nasty spot on the well-worn 26th Street persuaded the city government it was making the right choice. And if you take the FTC flyover from Gora Qabristan and exit on to Sharea Faisal, you’ll notice the difference there too. These two spots would keep ponding no matter how many times the city patched them up. But since these strips were done over in blocks in 2022, there has been a marked difference. A bigger experiment for an entire underpass at Gulistan-i-Jauhar was undertaken a year later. The decision raised eyebrows at the time, but the mayor defended it as a solution to persistent water damage. But when should pavers ideally be used in Karachi, and is this construction material actually a solution to one of this city’s worst problems: potholes? Why pavers in the first place? Pavers became popular when clay bricks fell short as Europe patched itself back together again after WWII. The Netherlands introduced them in 1951, Brazil has relied on them for entire favelas, and use has doubled in the United States every five years. And according to Farhad Jatoi, the