Gas utility says not at fault for dug up roads
The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) has disbursed Rs11.9 billion to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and various Town Municipal Corporations (TMCs) for road-cutting and rehabilitation during a period from July 2024 to June 2025.
The gas utility was under fire from political and civic circles for digging up roads for laying pipelines, however, SSGC sources said that the company had made timely disbursment of the mandatory road cutting charges.
It was the reposnsiblity of the matropolitan and town corportations to utilise these funds in a justified manner, they said.
According to the data, released by the SSGC, the gas utility made the highest payments of Rs3.55 billion to TMC North Karachi and TMC North Nazimabad. TMC Model Colony received the second-highest payment of Rs2.10 billion. Other payments included Rs1 billion to TMC Lyari, Rs7.3 million to TMC Jinnah, and Rs6.2 million to TMC Malir.
The data further revealed that TMC Saddar and Chensar each received Rs260 million, while TMC Landhi was paid Rs210 million. The SSGC paid Rs490 million to the KMC for road-cutting and restoration works. The lowest amount of Rs0.227 million was paid to TMC Gulshan.
Despite these massive disbursements totaling over Rs11 billion, the roads across Karachi remain in disrepair.
Interestingly, SSGC never issued even a single protest letter to any TMC over their failure to restore the roads, nor did its legal department sign any binding agreement before releasing such a huge amount.
Sources further disclosed that SSGC did not obtain any formal assurance from TMCs that the roads would be rebuilt after payments.
However, due to the public outrage following the recent downpours, SSGC has now initiated the process of drafting protest letters to KMC and the concerned TMCs, questioning why roadworks have not been completed despite receiving the huge payments.
SSGC insiders expressed concern, saying, "If the company aggressively protests or takes legal action, it may face complications in acquiring road-cutting permissions in the future from these municipal bodies."
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