August 24, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 21, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 23: Two key roads linking Lyari Town with Saddar, Keamari and Site towns are in shambles for quite some times but the relevant civic agency have turned a blind eye towards the immense hardship being caused to the commuters and pedestrians, besides the residents of all the localities falling along both the sides of the arteries.

Shah Waliullah Road and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road had been dug up extensively several months ago when different civic agencies started development work in the town for the replacement of utility services lines. Owing to a slow pace of work, the works are still yet to be completed.

The number of people suffering because of the denial of easy access to over a dozen government and private institutions, as well as hospitals and other emergency facilities, is considerably high as the affected areas comprised densely populated localities with countless multi-storeyed apartment buildings and commercial concerns.

The dup up roads have created a dangerously unhygienic atmosphere with choked drains oozing stinking sewage everywhere around. The blocked access also leads to traffic jams in the neighbourhood as a daily routine and causing problems to local residents and other pedestrians who risk falling into the trenches, especially while passing through the area in the night.

The residents told this reporter that no tangible progress in the development had been witnessed for the past few months and it seemed as if the project had been abandoned or the work had been suspended indefinitely. With the launching of the project, one side of both the main thoroughfares was closed to vehicular traffic and no alternative route was arranged to facilitate a smooth flow of traffic in the area.

A complete traffic mess is witnessed whole the day and till midnight in the affected area, said a resident, deploring that all the requests made to the authorities concerned in this regard had so far fallen on deaf ears.