Published in DAWN PRISM

Nearly 15,000 people risk losing their homes in Karachi, Hyderabad and Lahore to make way for Pakistan’s most ambitious railway project, Main Line-1, for which work will kick off in January. The estimate of families at risk was done by the Karachi Urban Lab with satellite data which was ground truthed in neighbourhoods sitting along the track between Karachi and Lahore. If at least 25 feet need to be cleared on both sides from the track, over 2,400 people will have to vacate this space. These are the working class drivers, maids, salesmen, carpenters, masons, and daily wage workers, of course.