Karachi - PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, on the request of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, inaugurated Jahangir Park in Saddar on Sunday.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, sometime back, while presiding over a meeting at New Sindh Secretariat, had said that he wanted to restore Jahangir Park; otherwise it would turn into a parking place or a dumping site for wooden crates which the fruit vendors keep throwing there.
He concluded the meeting and accompanied by his then Principal Secretary Naveed Kamran Baloch, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem and Project Director Karachi Package Niaz Soomro visited the park without protocol and vowed to resurrect it completely.
He directed the DC South who was also present there to remove encroachments from the park so that the restoration work could start.
Murad directed Chairman P&D and PD Karachi package to prepare PC-1 for the park and get it approved it from him.
Later the chief minister approved the scheme of worth Rs200 million.
Work started on the project and the chief minister kept visiting its site from time to time and ensured its completion within six months.
The park spreads over five acres with a MP theatre, birds’ aviary, a dinosaur park and a beautiful library.
It has RO plants. One RO Plant is for drinking purpose to be used by visitors and the nearby residents would also have the facility to take water to their homes.
The other RO plant is only meant for watering the lawn, trees, plants and flowers planted there.
The park has its own security system, under which CCTV cameras have been installed with a command and control centre. These CCTV cameras also cover the vicinity around the park.
The park inaugurated on Sunday would be open for public from Monday evening.
It would be free for all for two weeks, and then the administration would decide to fix nominal charges for the visitors.
The Sindh government, through PD of the project, would maintain the park for the next two years.
It may be noted here that the land on which Jahangir Park is situated was donated by Khan Bahadur Behramjee Jahangir Raj Kotwala in early 1880s.
A park was built on the land and was named Behramjee Bagh. It was inaugurated on the eve of Noroze in 1883. Later, its name became Jahangir Park.
The chief minister said that the inauguration of Jahangir Park would have satisfied the soul of late Behramjee Jahangir. “Now it is up to all of us to take care of the park and maintain its beauty and the restored glory,” he stressed.
Murad said Saddar was heart of Karachi, while Jahangir Park was the heart of Saddar. “We have restored palpitation of the heart, and now with the start of restoration of old areas, the entire Saddar would give new a look,” he hoped.