KARACHI: Small overpasses and flyovers have become inevitable for the downtown areas of Karachi to cope with the growing traffic jams that are wasting time and money of citizens besides producing noise and air pollution in the city. An overpass or a flyover is a bridge that crosses over another road. Together, they form a grade separation. The crowded parts of downtown areas have many overpasses for a better flow of traffic. Overpasses and flyovers play a major role in streamlining the traffic control system as avoiding congestion saves time. The pollution effect is also reduced with these structures. They reduce the risk of accidents and also contribute to the aesthetics of the city as people using flyovers can also enjoy the panoramic view of the city. An overpass is an old engineering device built to cope with traffic jams. The Croydon Railway constructed the world’s first railroad overpass in 1843 in London to carry its railway vehicles over the Brighton Main Line. The first overpass in India was opened on 14 April 1965 at Kemps Corner in Mumbai. The world’s most crowded city, Tokyo, is famous for its multi-staged street overpasses that successful regulate overwhelming traffic of the city. There is no harm in studying these systems and trying to replicate some of them in Karachi. During the city governments of Niamatullah Khan and Mustafa Kamal, Karachi got some beautiful flyovers built, but the city still awaits small street-based overpasses and flyover in the congested areas like Saddar. These small structures of steel could be easily erected over different street junctions in the Saddar area and could reduce traffic jams successfully. These small overpasses are direly needed over busy streets that include, MA Jinnah Road Mansfield Street junction, Rizvi Shaheed Road, Preedy Street junction Depot Lines, Shahrah-e-Liaquat, Daudpota Road junction, Zaibunnisa Street Shahrah-e-Liaquat junction, Shahrah-e-Liaquat Abdullah Haroon Road Junction, Shahrah-e-Liaquat Court Road Junction, Shahrah-e-Liaquat Muhammad Bin Qasim Road Junction, Sarwar Shaheed Road Zaibunnisa Street junctions, Lucky Star. The elected city government is expected to give a strong focus on small overpasses and flyovers in busy commercial and residential areas of the city to mitigate the sufferings of the locals. Local engineering universities particularly NED University of Engineering and Technology could greatly assist the city government in erecting these small overpasses over different streets of the city.