KARACHI, Feb 2: People faced hardships on the second consecutive day on Wednesday owing to road closures at several places in the city.

The traffic police had closed roads to facilitate President Pervez Musharraf and other foreign delegates to move from the downtown to the Expo Centre.

Traffic mess developed after the closure of Sharea Faisal ahead of the inauguration of Expo Pakistan 2005. From Metropole hotel to Karsaz, the road remained closed and the police disallowed the vehicles.

Parking on either side of the thoroughfare was also banned and the parked vehicles were taken away to other places. Owners were seen looking for their vehicles in the nearby lanes.

Due to the closure of the main artery, motorists and commuters got stuck in the deluge of traffic. Many people were seen walking all along Lucky Star and Sharea Faisal. The closure of roads also disturbed traffic in Saddar.

Traffic, coming from Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Bahadurabad and other areas, was diverted to Shahrah-i-Quaideen and was not allowed to use Sharea Faisal. This led to traffic jams on various roads.

A commuter said the exhibition centre be established somewhere else to avoid inconvenience to common man. DIG Traffic Yameen Khan said that 20 new Corolla cars have been inducted by the traffic police to facilitate people. The cars were seen on Sharea Faisal.

He said that provision of safe passage to foreign delegates was the responsibility of the traffic police. He said that the Sharea Faisal from Avari Towers to Karsaz was closed for only 10 to 15 minutes. However, traffic took its time to get normalized.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, occupants of apartments facing the Expo Centre were instructed not to use their balconies till the exhibition comes to an end. They were also directed not to entertain guests.

Police were deployed at all the entrances of the apartments located around the expo centre and the officials, who had already conducted a survey, had a list of residents. Others were not allowed to enter apartments' premises.