MUZAFFARGARH, Nov 2: A patient died when the ambulance carrying him was stuck in a traffic jam near Muzaffargarh Thermal Power Station on Sunday.

Several oil tankers have been parked in front of the thermal station on Muzaffargarh-Mahmoodkot Road for the past several days. These oil-tankers bring furnace oil for the power station from Karachi and they have to wait for their turn to unload while queuing up outside the power station for around a week or so, throwing traffic out of gear quite frequently.

One Sunday, a patient, Allah Ditta, was referred from Taunsa to Nishtar Hospital in Multan. His brother Faisal told Dawn that the ambulance carrying Allah Ditta struck in the traffic jam caused due to parking of heavy vehicles on the congested road. Faisal said that he contacted Rescue-15 and others officials for emergency help but to no avail.

There is acute traffic mess on the road, especially for the past couple of weeks, inconveniencing commuters, including employees, students and traders.

Dawn also saw a van carrying staff of another thermal station in the district also trapped in the mess. The officials of the American Engineering Services told Dawn that they had written to officials concerned many times to clear the congestion, but their efforts did not bear fruit.

Nazim Hussain, a mill worker, said that due to this mess, he reached his office behind the scheduled time due to which he was often marked absent.

Traffic DSP Syed Siffat Sherazi said that he had no extra staff to control traffic, particularly of oil tankers on this road. He said thermal power company management should itself fix the problem.