KARACHI, Oct 30: The city government has constituted teams comprising District Officer Charged Parking and police officials to resolve the problem of traffic jam in the metropolis in close coordination with town Nazims and police.

A decision to this effect was taken during a meeting chaired by Acting City Nazim Tariq Hasan here on Thursday. It was attended by DCO Mir Hussain Ali, town Nazims, EDOs, SSPs of traffic police and other relevant officials.

Mr Hasan declared that vendors had not been allowed by town administrations or UC Nazims to set up their business on roads and if any vendor possessed such a permission from any authority, it stood cancelled.

He directed traffic police to extend cooperation to town administrations in removing encroachment from roads to ensure an uninterrupted flow of traffic.

Charged parking is not allowed in ‘No Parking Zones’ he made clear and said, wherever charged parking was creating traffic problem, the traffic police should identify the place. The charged parking from the particular place would be abolished and the concerned contractor would be compensated, he added.

He remarked that government departments should make efforts to resolve the problems being faced by people instead of shifting blame on each other. He apprehended that traffic problems might aggravate as the Eidul Fitr getting nearer. It is, therefore, imperative for traffic police to remain in constant touch with town administrations to avoid any major lapse at any place, he stressed.

DCO Mir Hussain Ali told the meeting that the city government had almost accomplished the task of road-repairs. He, however, asked traffic police to identify the spots where repair work could not be carried out.

Holding out the assurance that the problems, besides traffic jam, arising out of the ongoing development work on roads, would be resolved in due course of time, the DCO pointed out that contractors of charged parking areas were not authorized to collect fee for illegal parking in ‘No Parking Zones’ and warned that action would be taken against defiant contractors. He hoped that the newly set up joint teams of town administrations and traffic police would succeed in containing the traffic hazards.

The meeting also decided that encroachment in Quaidabad and Dawood Chowrangi localities would be removed immediately and directed the concerned officials to get all pushcarts from Kalaboard, Malir and Saudabad removed.

Traffic police officials appreciated the city government efforts towards road repairing on such a big scale and observed that traffic problems at Hino Chowk had been resolved due to expeditious development work there.

The meeting was told that the National Highway Authority (NHA) would be resuming work on Mauripur Road soon and that the construction work on the road between Gulbai and Shershah would be undertaken by Site Town administration. It was further told that the city government would construct the road between Gulbai and PAF Base Masroor and also undertake repairing of defective traffic signals.—PPI