LAHORE: Traffic police’s lack of planning and the will to serve left hundreds of motorists entrapped in one of the worst traffic jams on Canal Road. Sunday’s gridlock occurred from Harbanspura to Mughalpura.

The situation caused a great deal of trouble especially to the fasting people including women, children and the elderly travelling by cars or motorcycles as there was no way to get out of the traffic jam for hours.

Those who spent their day at the canal up to Jallo added to the rush on the road on their way back home in the late afternoon. The traffic was blocked because of Hazrat Ali’s martyrdom day procession at Lal Pull which is a regular notified annual event. To facilitate the mourners and to ensure their security, Canal Road at Lal Pull leading to Jallo is closed to traffic which is diverted to the opposite incoming road.

But despite knowing the event and the hurdle it caused, traffic wardens did not divert traffic to alternate routes. They continued to send forward traffic from Harbanspura to Mughalpura despite the fact that the road ahead was blocked at the Tajpura crossing. As a result hundreds of motorists were trapped in the snarl-up from Taj Bagh to Tajpura.

It proved especially troublesome for those travelling by cars. Many found it fit to open the doors of their cars, allowing the perspiring co-travelers particularly women and children to alight and breathe fresh air in the extremely muggy weather. Many had to break their fast on the road.

Motorcyclists went pell-mell creating more confusion. Many went to Tajpura to find a way out but to their sheer frustration, they ended up in another traffic muddle there.

A spokesman for the Lahore traffic police said the problem was created by a protest of the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club employees and Hazrat Ali’s martyrdom day procession. He agreed that traffic wardens should have prevented people from moving towards the bottleneck and guided people to alternate routes to save them the trouble they faced.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016