LAHORE: A terrible traffic mess was witnessed in the provincial capital on Thursday as thousands of motorists remained stuck almost for the whole day on several roads of the city.

The situation was much disturbing on Canal Road, Jail Road, The Mall, Davies Road, Shadman Chowk and other adjoining arteries where the motorists spent hours to reach their destinations due to traffic gridlocks.

Several motorists tried to use smaller arteries and streets of the residential areas but they got trapped in the bumper-to-bumper traffic as they were already jammed with hundreds of vehicles. The traffic wardens were found absent from many roads, intersections and major signals, leaving the motorists high and dry.

The patients’ transportation to the Services Hospital also remained an issue as the Jail Road was choked with long queues of vehicles. Ambulances carrying patients could not find way to reach the hospital and their sirens created a panic-like situation.

A schoolteacher, Anjum, got stuck in his car on the Canal Road when he was taking his elder brother to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

“It took me one and half hours to reach Canal Road from Defence,” he told this reporter, adding he remained trapped on the Jail Road for another half an hour. Wardens diverted traffic from Jail Road to Canal Road, asking them to use Ferozepur Road and Shadman Colony to reach PIC.

Anjum said his brother’s condition deteriorated in the car due to traffic mess, pollution and delay.

“We decided to take him (patient) to any private hospital but still could not find any way to reach there due to the traffic jam,” he said.

“I was stuck in traffic everywhere I went since I left my house,” a Harbanspura resident, Jafar Hussain, said. He said he was to pick his parents from the house of his relatives’ in Mozang. He was first diverted by the traffic wardens from the Canal Road to The Mall and then to Davies Road from where he was asked to go to the railways station to reach his destination, he said.

“I got stuck again on the Davies Road and waited the clearance of the road to reach the railway station,” he said.

Minor clashes between the motorists were also witnessed in the day-long traffic mess as many of them lost their temper in utter frustration.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play