10th Civil Engineering Conference connects with Karachi’s issues IEP Karachi decides hosting open forums on K – 4, other projects

The Institution of Engineers Pakistan (IEP), Karachi organized 10th Civil Engineering Conference in collaboration with NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi.
The most striking aspect of this two-day moot was that it focused on real issues the city of Karachi is facing at the moment. ‘This was the relevance and theme of the conference’, said Engr. Sohail Bashir, Chairman IEP Karachi center.
The conference was collaborated by Asian Civil Engineering Coordination Council (Toyko Japan), Federation of Engineering Institution of Islamic Countries (Riyadh, KSA) and Federation of Engineering Institutions South and Central Asia (Colombo, SL).
Also, ACE Pakistan, BUITMS Quetta, Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology Khuzdar, Sir Syed University Karachi and Sufa University in Karachi were partners in the event.
Engr. Bashir said unlike previous conferences which were more titled to academic and theoretical papers, this conference was linked with the resolution of the issues.
‘We invited people from industry so that the expectation of industry and academia be brought out in the limelight’, he said.
This tradition started from the 4th International Electrical Engineering Conference that the institution organized before this one.
In this conference, Azhar Lodhi from Exponent Engineering depicted in his paper the scenario of Karachi Mass Transit Program.
Abul Khair Masroor talked about earthquake engineering while another senior speaker Rehan-ul-Ambia unveiled as to why engineering projects fail to complete in time and witness cost overruns. He presented case studies of 17 projects and found out who was responsible and how much.
Yet another speaker Bashir Lakhani put forth the fact why Karahi water transport scheme K – 4 is not completed as yet. He shared his information with the audience about the engineering and planning blunders in the project.
Engr. Al Kazim Mansoor (Soilmet Engineers), Salman Ahmed (BSF) and Arif Sattar (NED University) also presented their papers.
Engr. Sohail Bashir said the IEP Karachi had decided to hold an open forum on K- 4 project as they wanted the project to go ahead instead of getting entangled in a blame game.
Another important activity of the conference was that the IEP, Karachi collaborated with UN Inspire, Indonesia and organized an international workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction. Ms. Irina Rafiana, a disaster management expert from Inspire conducted the workshop in which over 30 multidisciplinary young people were trained. They will work as master trainers in disaster risk areas in the province, Engr. Bashir said.n