Category: Articles
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Gul Plaza Fire: An Engineer’s Perspective on Karachi’s Urban Safety Crisis
PAKISTAN By Ramesh Raja The tragic fire at Gul Plaza, MA Jinnah Road, which claimed over 67 lives up till now and left many injured, is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities inherent in Karachi’s urban infrastructure. As a civil engineer, observing the incident reveals not just the immediate causes but systemic design and regulatory…
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When Addiction Dismantles a City: Karachi’s Bridges and Its People at Risk
PAKISTAN By Ramesh Raja Karachi at a CrossroadsKarachi stands at a critical juncture where social failure is directly undermining physical infrastructure. As a civil engineer who has spent many years working on public projects and as a reform-minded citizen, I must say this clearly: Karachi’s bridges are not just aging—they are being deteriorated, and Karachi’s…
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Houbara Bustard: When Diplomacy Costs Wildlife
PAKISTAN By Ramesh Raja Every winter, a shy migratory bird arrives quietly in Pakistan’s deserts, and we see land cruisers and our feudal lords in the deserts as servants. This bird is the Houbara Bustard. It comes from the cold lands of Central Asia, from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and beyond, seeking warmth and survival. In many…
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When Engineering Learns to Listen: Letting Rivers Flow Like Rivers Again
By Ramesh Raja I was educated and trained to straighten rivers, confine them between concrete walls, and force water to behave. For decades, this was considered good engineering. Concrete meant control. Control meant safety. And safety, we believed, meant progress. But after a lifetime spent designing, building, inspecting, and repairing water infrastructure, I have reached…
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Mega Projects, Mini Lifespans: When Construction Triumphs but Maintenance Fails
By: Ramesh Raja Pakistan today does not suffer from a shortage of construction; it suffers from a collapse of maintenance culture. From highways to hospitals, sports complexes to water supply schemes, and even multi-billion-rupee mega projects, our infrastructure begins to decay alarmingly soon after inauguration. This failure is not accidental, nor is it purely technical.…