KARACHI: The Clifton underpass has now been ‘in use’ for almost three weeks. But whether it has resolved all traffic issues around the area is a matter that needs probing. In fact the chaos at the roundabout has not eased. It is just the strip of 550 meters passing under which has opened up to allow a straight passage for the traffic after nearly seven months of detouring undertaken by all vehicles. With the underpass and the road overhead allowing only straight passages in the North-South and the East-West directions, the left and right turning vehicles at all intersection points still have to use the broken roads to jump over debris and potholes.
The main fear now is that with the official opening already been done, will there be any attention paid to these lanes which are equally important for the traffic flow and which are in shambles and hampering commuters since the project began?
Since no cuts and passages have been defined, the traffic police look totally helpless as mayhem at the turnings continues, specially with the Ramazan rush. Buses and trucks, which have their own routing procedures, are commonly seen breaking through the small scaffoldings made for controlling the traffic line and hence starting a chain of illegal traffic flow.
Most critical are the dangerous manoeuvres being undertaken by cars trying to edge into the underpass by making wrong u-turns around its precipice or breaking onto the main path from the side lane where cars from the underpass also approach in high speed. The other most significant omission is the absence of pedestrian crossings. Since there are no signals there anymore and hence no ‘zebra crossing’ there is just no way to cross over to any of the four side of the intersection. Since the area has popular shopping places, pedestrians continue to cross over, braving the speeding cars exiting or entering the underpass – a most dangerous practice. It was obvious from the start that the logistics of the construction work was not looked into, but even all aspects of the layout have not been considered.
Just a few days ago, a large chunk broke off the water drain covering of the underpass –- nearly two feet wide -– leaving a dangerous gap large enough for a car wheel to collapse into and start a chain reaction of smashing cars. Though it was speedily fixed, it leaves an uneasy feeling as to how safe and secure is the rest of the construction? The water draining pump too is not yet in place, if Karachi chances to get a rainfall in the coming few months, the underpass will not be visible to the naked eye, as this junction has a history of water accumulation.
At present, a compounded effect of traffic laws not implemented by the police or public and the unavailability of proper alternate routes since this project began (which were also the responsibility of the traffic police and the City government) is rendering the 170-million rupees project even after completion, almost ineffectual.
Concerned about the citizens’ traffic problems since the project began, it was the Frontier Works Organization’s own endeavours which saw the completion of the underpass in a lesser time than anticipated. Project Officer, Major Mansoor Ahmed from the FWO informed that the deadline for the two plans – the underpass and the revamping of the sidelanes – was June 2006, but, he says, “we could see that the people were going through so much problems that we speeded up the work as much as we could with the aim of at least opening up the underpass before Ramazan.” He further informed that if it wasn’t for the work problems of other utilities like the KWSB, the cable networks, the PTCL, the SSGC etc, their work would probably have finished earlier. But these agencies take their time in doing their part of the work as bureaucratic red-tapism often impedes their progress and when the paper work is finally done, they leave half finished work like dug up mud in places which the FWO department has to deal with.
It is this mismanagement which has actually intensified the problems of the commuters as no governing umbrella was totally responsible for all departments doing their work. Since the city government lay defunct during the pass construction, there was again no ownership for the issues. And as for the other ‘governing’ officials they just inspect the sites only when a coterie of media persons are accompanying them to ensure their popularity and ‘vote bank’.
From the information gleaned from the FWO official, it is clear that the deadline for the completion of the entire project is for the June of 2006. The city and the area residents/commuters simply cannot be expected to go on this way for that long. We have a right to know what actions for traffic management is being taken – not just here, but all over the city — besides lip service and inane directives issued by the traffic police which are never seen being implemented. Heavy vehicles still ply without any time restrictions, buses still break signals brazenly and are never apprehended and illegal parking is blatantly continuing on main roads under the police eye. Why can’t empty plots be cleared and utilized as parking facilities? Why can’t rubble be removed from the road to widen the way? Unless a wide-angle view of civil management and traffic flow everywhere and subsequent steps by the traffic police are not taken all these million-rupee projects of development will be useless.
