February 05, 2007	Monday	Muharram 16, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, Feb 4: The local business community is facing loss running into millions every day due to the rebuilding of two major city roads at a snail’s pace, which also poses major health and environmental hazards.

Dust together with sewerage has made life of the people settled along the City Saddar Road and Ganjmandi Road miserable, whereas the Rawal Town administration has so far paid no attention to the serious issue.

Fearing ailment, a number of businessmen have closed their shops.

Despite the fact that the entire City Saddar Road has been uprooted to lay sewerage network and other public services like electricity and water lines, the public transport has been allowed to operate on it which is delaying project completion.

The two roads are scheduled to be completed by the end of March, but from the present pace of work it appears this may not happen in even six-month period, fear the shopkeepers as well as residents.

Zulfiqar Ahmad Kahut, the president of All Traders Association, Jinnah Road, is not hopeful that the road would be completed within 90 days as pledged by Rawal Town Nazim Shaikh Rashid Shafiq.

“More than a month has already passed and progress on the project is disappointing,” remarks Mr Kahut.

On the other hand, Shaikh Rashid Shafiq was confident that the road will be completed within 90 days for which the FWO has been awarded the contract.

Mr Shafiq told Dawn that the Rawal Town administration had signed a contract with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to complete five city roads within three months at a cost of Rs120 million.

In addition to the City Saddar Road, Babu Mohammad Hussain (Ganjmandi), Holy Family Hospital, Siddique Chowk and New Katarian roads will also be refurbished.

Traders have claimed that the nazim did not pay any attention to their suggestions of laying a concrete road as heavy vehicles used it frequently.

More than 600 shops in this particular area deals with building material, heavy earth moving machinery, iron, wood, etc.

The situation on Ganjmandi Road was also worsening day by day. The pace of construction work on drainage channel on both sides of the road was not different from the City Saddar Road.

Traders are heavily suffering as their shops have been separated from the road by the dug-up channels. The shopkeepers have protested against the slow progress and demanded early completion of the road.

The under-construction Ganjmandi Road has blocked the passage of all trucks moving towards Raja Bazaar. In this situation, traffic is seen making its way through small streets of residential area in Dhoke Ratta, causing environmental and health hazards to inhabitants.