Seems like the big wigs of the journalism industry have realized the power of blogs! The latest offering by a news giant comes in the form of The Dawn Blog, published by Dawn Newspaper. A very encouraging move by the company and an opportunity for the masses to come and discuss news items they publish.

In a similar move, Jang Group’s Geo TV also started a blog recently, but so far has failed to deliver content on it. The Dawn Blog is ripe with nicely written articles and is updated on a continuous pace with stories filed under various categories.

Site: http://blog.dawn.com

These two pictures by Capsat on Flickr are making rounds on the various Pakistani mailing lists. We received this tip from Jamal Shamsi first. The second picture showing the truck installing the solar powered street light seems to be inside some CDGK compound.

CDGK has gone a great job in replacing regular white street lights with sodium (yellow) lights in many localities. It gives a good lightening effect. However, a very high number of non-system connected street lights remain on 24/7 (see a previous entry on KMB on this topic) and this causes great power loss in a time when power is most needed. Street light power consumption is estimated at 24 megawatts in Karachi.

Theft security (apart from the price) of the solar panels atop these experimental arrangements might become an obstacle in mass deployment. Also, how long thru the night can these batteries last?

Out of gas? No problem there is always someone to help you get home. Caught this duo on Shahrai Faisal in front of Bank Al-Falah building. If you notice in the left corner there is a Shell petrol pump, they passed this by without a second glance, looks like the duo was committed to get home in style. Bhaiyya take me home

There are plans that there would be a Bus Rapid Transit System in Karachi soon:

The BRTS will resemble a network of railway stations because instead of bus stops, there will be station-like compounds. Like railway tracks, no other transport will be allowed to ply on the track of buses under the BRTS.

Daily Time has details on the ADB Karachi Mega City Sustainable Development Project (KMCSDP) under which this BRTS project will be deployed in various phases. According to the details, ‘high pressure’ CNG stations will fill buses gas requirements in ‘2 minutes’.

The quarter billion dollar project will have three tranches with the following corridors details:

Tranche 1:
Surjani Town – Mazar-e-Quaid (20 km)

Mazar-e-Quaid – Karachi University (14 km)

Orangi Town Extension (4km)

Tranche 2:

Nagan Chowragi – Landi (21.5 km)

Rashidabad Extension

UP More Extensio (2.7 km)

Tranche 3:

Gulistan-e-Juaher – University Road (4.7 km)

KDA – Metropole via SF (10.4 km)

Shahrah-e-Quaideen (2.3 km)

Koragi – Shahrah-e-Faisal (18 km)

Defense (4.8 km)

Amidst all the AFR/APR 2007/2008 and the licence plate bragging the acquisition of a new vehicle, this one seems to have taken a sarkari tangent.

This is a GA 2008….and is a green plate. That too without a Government stamp on it.

When will this stop?? When will everyone start thinking of themselves above the law?

According to this news item published in a reputed paper, the City Governement has signed a deal for a 47 storey building adjacent to Civic Centre.

The building complex will host 3 shopping malls, a 240 room five star hotel, a 12000-seat call centre, parking for over 2000 cars and will provide employment opportunities to over 50,000 people.

Seriously, great going if this happens, but a 5 star hotel near civic centre?? Do we not have enough “high security” zones thanks to these hotels and consulates?

Looks like the city government is looking for sponsorships for the traffic police manned intersections….

A fresh car, apparently just rolled out of the factory. Black tinted windows and a veiled ‘status batch’ deliberately covering the otherwise private license place. A mark of ill-conceived honor in our country where the more nakedly you break the laws, the higher your status is.

Some MXA-Elect probably :)

“Mark my words, the city will sink in complete darkness in the coming summer and the citizen of Karachi will face the worst situation ever in the history of Pakistan,” warned Teli.

These are the words of an ex head of KCCI as reported by Daily Times in a news story that revolved around the details of the upcoming, much dreaded and death-sure black summer as given by the head of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC).

How do you plan to cope with the upcoming power-free summer? Life-style changes? Two UPSs and a generator to charge them? Group generators for the entire neighborhood? Migration from Karachi?

Yes…the signal actually has a heart on it…in red.

So any takers on the location?