RAWALPINDI: The government’s direction to contractors to complete the metro bus project by January 30 has created a traffic mess on Murree Road.

In a bid to catch up with the deadline, the project managers started all the finishing works simultaneously, creating problems for the commuters.

The road from Flashman’s Hotel to Marrir Chowk remains dug up and the traffic has been diverted to Kashmir Road creating gridlocks there.

Heaps of construction materials are visible on the Murree Road from Liaquat Bagh to Shamsabad where traffic moves at a snail’s pace and the 20-minute-journey takes about two hours.

The National Logistics Cell (NLC), one of the contractors, is laying girders for the elevated road from Committee Chowk to 6th Road. At the same time, it has also started recarpeting the Murree Road.

Masood Ahmed, who daily commutes between Rawalpindi and Islamabad, said in order to meet the deadline the contractors had started all the works simultaneously. He said the administration and the traffic police had failed to provide alternative routes to the motorists.

Mohammad Bilal, a resident of I-8/3, added that the journey from Saddar to Faizabad took about two hours. The link roads also witnessed traffic jams. He said during the construction work on the elevated road, the project managers had failed to adopt security measures for the road users.

A citizen, Mehmood Mughal, said the government should have provided an alternative road map plan before starting the project.

“But the government is in a hurry to complete the project and launch the metro bus service by the deadline at any cost no matter if the quality of work and safety of the commuters are compromised,” he said.

An official of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), requesting not to be named, attributed the traffic mess to the contractors’ decision to start recarpeting of Murree Road which was scheduled to be launched after the completion of the elevated road.

He said in Rawalpindi more than 60 per cent work on Package-I (Saddar to Committee Chowk) and Package-III (6th Road to Faizabad) had been completed. But the work on Package-II from Committee Chowk to 6th Road is relatively slow which has created problems for other contractors.

City Traffic Officer (CTO) Shoaib Khurram Janbaz has advised the motorists not to use Murree Road in the coming days and use alternative roads. However, he did not install signboards or banners informing the road users about the alternative routes.

When contacted, Commissioner Zahid Saeed said the recarpeting of Murree Road started from Flashman’s Hotel to Marriri Chowk and the remaining work would be completed after the construction of the elevated road in the other two packages. He admitted that the work on Package-II was comparatively slow but expressed the hope that the deadline of January 31 would be met.

“At least the corridor of metro bus service will be completed to launch the bus service,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2015

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