January 10, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 9, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 9: The city witnessed one of the worst traffic congestions of the month on various roads and thoroughfares on Monday as motorists and commuters in public transport remained trapped in the deluge of vehicles for hours.

The traffic situation in Saddar and its adjoining areas was awful and the traffic police failed miserably in controlling the same.

Long queues were seen on the dual carriageway of M. A. Jinnah Road, which is indeed a wide road but was bunged up with vehicles of all kind. Traffic police officials were present at each traffic signal and regulating the traffic manually as they had switched off the signals’ lights.

As the traffic was being controlled manually, vehicles kept on moving at a snail’s pace and the traffic police officials were unable to clear the mess. The attitude of drivers was equally responsible for aggravating the traffic chaos as their impatience and intolerance contributed a lot to deteriorating traffic situation. Most of the drivers of cars, motorcycles, minibuses and coaches were seen violating traffic signals openly and the traffic officials kept on watching them helplessly.

A motorist said that he was trapped in the flood of vehicles near Capri Cinema on M. A. Jinnah Road while heading towards Avari Towers. He covered the distance of hardly two kilometres in one hour due to the massive traffic jams on Aga Khan-III Road and Zaibunnisa Street.

The situation was more serious on different roads in Saddar, Empress Market and Lucky Star, as well as on Zaibunnisa Street, Abdullah Haroon Road, Sarwar Shaheed Road, etc. The police failed to implement the one-way rule on Sarwar Shaheed Road where two-way traffic ran all the day, creating hurdles in traffic flow. Besides, parking in three rows on either side of the road has further reduced the road’s width for traffic movement. No police official was present there to stop drivers from parking their vehicles in violation of rules.

Similar situation was witnessed on Zaibunnisa Street and Abdullah Haroon Road where parking in two and three rows on either side is a routine. Traffic police officials were present on these roads but they would never bother to intervene.

Suzuki pick-ups were seen lifting motorbikes from the no-parking areas while car-lifters were witnessed taking away cars to the traffic section concerned.

Motorists and motorcycle riders are made to pay the prescribed fine, for violating parking rules, along with lifting charges ranging from Rs100 to Rs200, but no receipt is given to them. A senior traffic police official said that the lifting charges were being collected for onward payment to the drivers of the Suzuki pick-ups hired privately. However, the car-lifter is the official vehicle and an amount other than the fine amount is collected for maintenance of the vehicle concerned.

Sources in the traffic police say that each traffic section in Saddar and its adjoining areas up to Merewether Tower generates Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 per day and the monthly income of each section varies between Rs300,000 to Rs500,000, which is ultimately distributed among traffic officials of different ranks.

They say that lifting of cars and motorbikes has yielded no positive results as violation of parking rules continues as usual. They say that a ban should be imposed on lifting of vehicles, which would not only put a dent on the illegal income of traffic police but would also streamline the traffic flow. Besides, the traffic police officials and regular police should be deployed on roads to check traffic violations strictly, which would improve the traffic situation.

The traffic chaos on Monday was not confined to downtown areas but it was witnessed on S. M. Taufeeq Road in Liaquatabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Rashid Minhas Road, University Road near Safari Park, all around Sohrab Goth intersection and other localities.