10 October 2004	Sunday	24 Shaban 1425

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KARACHI, Oct 9: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Saturday that his government attaches priority to communications sector and construction of road from Mai Kolachi to Submarine Chowk would ensure smooth and uninterrupted flow of traffic.

The prime minister was speaking at the earth-breaking ceremony of development and rehabilitation of the road from Mai Kolachi to Submarine Chowk, sponsored by the Karachi Port Trust under the Tameer-i-Pakistan Programme.

Costing Rs698.6 million, the project will be completed in 18 months having three proposed underpasses. After completion, 75,000 vehicles a day will pass through this road.

The prime minister expressed the hope that the project would be completed on or before the stipulated time. He pointed out that underpasses are being completed in Pakistan in 90 days.

He noted that the entire project was quite complex and it was not a simple underpass and asked the contractor, the Frontier Works Organization, not to slip on the deadline.

The delay would cause interruption to other construction activities going on in the city that would create more hardship to people, he said.

Referring to the inconvenience being caused to Karachiites during the visit of dignitaries, he said the government was examining alternatives to find out a solution to this problem. "But so far we haven't found much success and are still working on it," he added.

"I am pleased to know that the minister for port and shipping and chairman of KPT have agreed on our suggestion to build four underpasses on Sharea Faisal to ensure a faster journey to the airport."

He told the gathering that this project would considerably improve traffic flow in Karachi.

Giving details of the proposed underpasses, the prime minister said the first one would be built at PIDC from where traffic would be allowed to move towards Sharea Faisal directly, while the remaining three will be built on Sharea Faisal.

The prime minister said that the KPT would be funding the construction of these four under-passes and called upon the KPT chairman that "the earliest are done, the better it would be, because the top traffic bottleneck is Sharea Faisal among other thoroughfares."

Giving reasons for traffic congestion in Karachi, the prime minister said the number of vehicles on roads was increasing sharply.

"Our predictions are that this number will increase even further because population is growing and the availability of (bank) credit is there. People are interested in leasing and to borrowing today for a brighter tomorrow. This is the best way to judge the public psyche," Shaukat Aziz said.

He said that level of accessibility can be high and low at all levels of society whether it is a bicycle, a motorcycle or a car that all add to create hustle and bustle in any city, like Karachi.

Advising the traffic engineering of the metropolis, the prime minister asked them to start working on a project to accommodate a rise of 50 per cent in the existing vehicular traffic in next five years.

The prime minister said that from this spot, it would take one hour to reach the Governor's House in case of normal traffic flow.

He asked the Traffic Engineering Bureau to come up with some practical proposals and added that the government was preparing some good projects to help ease traffic flow in Karachi.-APP