Karachi Development Plan 2000
Core idea
Corridors and ring strategy
Why it matters
Framed explosive megacity growth
Description
The Karachi Development Plan, prepared by the Karachi Development Authority with United Nations assistance from the early 1970s and extended in a later plan horizon to 2000, sought to structure the explosive growth of Pakistan's largest city and port. It proposed a framework of development corridors and ring roads, the decentralisation of employment, large serviced-land programmes for housing, and improvement approaches for the katchi abadis, the city's informal settlements.
Significance
The plan is a significant example of internationally assisted master planning for a rapidly urbanising postcolonial megacity, and its corridor-and-ring framework continues to underlie Karachi's road structure. Its partial implementation amid land speculation, institutional fragmentation and informal growth has made Karachi a much-cited case in critiques of comprehensive planning under conditions of weak governance.
What shaped it
- Ekistics (1968)
- The master plan (early 20th c.)
- The urban freeway (mid-20th c.)
Sources
- https://urckarachi.org/karachi-master-plans/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachi_Development_Authority