Will the widening and expanding of the road network in Lahore do any good to the commuters?
With the construction of the Dharampura underpass, the Punjab government has clearly embarked on a huge expansion of its road network, and there seems to be no shortage of funds. “The Punjab government is pouring in funds to develop the Canal Bank Road as an expressway through the central parts of the city and air and dry ports, more importantly the Indian border,” says Khushal Khan, Chief Engineer Tepa. Next, he says, “there is also a plan to widen the same route between Defence Road crossing and Jallo from two lanes to three. A service road will also run along this.” The idea: “The road when complete will not only give better access to central parts, but also ensure smooth distribution of traffic to other corridors of the city.”
Enlisting other projects, he says, “G.T. Road between Daroghawala and Wagah will be made a dual carriage route. Another plan is to improve Ferozepur Road from General Hospital to Kasur and further to Gandasinghwala. This will also have a service road for unhindered urban development.”
Khushal Khan, of course, does not miss a chance to mention the Rs18 billion Lahore Ring Road project. “The first phase of the road is almost complete.” In the same breath, he mentions Khayaban-i-Jinnah between Shaukat Khanum Hospital and Raiwind as another very recent project.
What perhaps sparks most excitement in him is the road that will run through the Punjab University, connecting Maulana Shaukat Ali Road to Wahadat Road to Multan Road and eventually Motorway. “The Punjab government has already approved the project. However, negotiations with the authorities at the Punjab University are underway,” he reveals.
According to Khushal Khan, these projects are a result of the Punjab government’s untiring efforts, dually supported by donor agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He says that these projects are approved after extensive research and planning. In fact, the planning stage is rather laborious. Several plans are chalked out, starting from the Master plan, five-year plans, mid-term development framework and so on. Every plan involves all tiers of the provincial government.
Is it not a long-term plan that will alter the city’s geography? Plans we have aplenty. Yes. The Integrated Master Plan of Lahore 2021, prepared by the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK) in collaboration with professionals from different fields of life, has given due importance to the development of road network in Lahore. “The radial pattern of city road network lacks inter-radials. Riding quality and road capacity has improved through recent investment of Rs3.41 billion spent towards this end. Delays and safety problems will persist at junctions. Facilities for pedestrians and cyclists are either non-existent or inadequate. These are the most vulnerable groups and are victims of 50 per cent of road accidents. Encroachments are wide spread and absence of sustainable road maintenance mechanism is resulting in frequent pavement failures. Road maintenance is ignored till reconstruction becomes due.”
That is the existing scenario of Lahore presented in the executive summary of Integrated Master Plan of Lahore, approved by the Lahore Development Authority late last year.
Based on these findings, the plan proposes that road network and traffic flow be improved. “These includes construction of new roads including Ring Road and missing links, bridges/underpasses, provision of facilities for pedestrians/cyclists, removal of encroachments, parking arrangements, traffic surveillance, management and control. There is a need to base major road projects on feasibility and project impact assessments. Consistent policies, design guidelines, and proper maintenance and managements programmes for the urban road network are required. Private sector financing needs to be encouraged in this sector.”
These proposals are supported by the annual increase in urban population of the Lahore district, which is highest in the world. Also, “the growth rate of population in rural parts of the district has been faster (4.16 per cent) than the urban areas of the district (3.32 per cent). The existing urban population of 5.77 million (2001) will soar to 9.89 million by the year 2021,” says the executive summary of the Integrated Master Plan.
The vision is splendid and very 21st century. Achieving it, however, will be challenging. Because, says Professor Pervaiz Vandal, “Master plans never work. No plan in the world has so far been fully implemented.” Take the case of Islamabad, he explains, the plan proposed by C. Doxiades, who was a gift to us from the Ford Foundation, was a complete disaster. “Plans are made functional after adjustments. The grand scheme becomes pragmatic after input from locals. Plans can comprise only guidelines,” he emphasizes.
Development planner Reza Ali cannot agree more with Vandal. “Plan is a long term vision. It merely presents the higher objectives for managing a city.” But he can’t refute the significance of roads in good city lifestyle. “Roads are most critical, they help us run smoothly. To get anywhere one need roads. Public transport, electrification, water etc., come later as a second stage.”
Reza, though, is amazed at the attention the government gives to the widening and expanding of main roads of the city, and a cold shoulder to effective land use and better management of traffic plying the inner ring of the city. To prove his point, he says, Mozang road is wide and runs parallel to the Mall, yet the road is left unattended. “It can easily take some load off the Mall,” he maintains.
Then again he points out that Gulberg’s Mini Market is mismanaged. “Where in the world will you see cars parked around a roundabout and people devouring chaat and bun kababs?” he asks. He places the management of Hussain Chowk in the same category. He asks again: “Does it make sense to let a marriage hall function on one side of the roundabout? When the cars of invitees are parked around the hall, the traffic gets clogged and hence chaotic. And whatever about the fuel station in the heart of residential localities?”
The solution, he says, does not lie in widening roads. “Oxford Street has been narrowed down over the years to allow pedestrians to move easily. Footpath on both sides of the road has been widened instead. Only limited traffic is allowed to ply on the street.”
The problem is that Lahore’s road system is built around the car, it has become very easy to build roads and quite difficult to do anything else, particularly to create designated parking areas, walkways for pedestrians and paths for cyclists. This, says Vandal, is a default position. “Simply because in planning the will of the people is not considered. There are no footpaths in the newly developed localities of Defence, nor a lane for cyclists through the underpasses. Why?”
According to him, Lahore is a colonial city with only a few Mughal or pre-Mughal monuments. What Sikhs and Mughals developed comprises only 10 per cent of the city in total. Cantonment itself is 10 per cent larger than the walled city. The fact remains that the vast expanse beyond the walled city is on colonial lines. “With this kind of a city design,” he explains, “tags along the colonial mindset.” British were not aware of the welfare of the locals. Similarly, our city officials are deaf to people’s needs. City design is the prerogative of a bunch of officials who are not accountable to people.
This attitude, holds Vandal, impacts the minds of the people who have not been able to lay claim on Lahore as their own city. Can they outrightly say, “This is my city?”
To take the debate further, Vandal points out that almost all ongoing projects and the ones in the pipeline are planned for south of the city. “Multan Road and Ferozepur Road have been the main growth arteries,” Khushal Khan admits. He says: “There has been more development around Multan Road and is continuing further to Defence Road/Hadiara Drain and Raiwind. The Punjab government is working on a number of urban development projects in the area that also includes widening of roads, some up to 100 to 200 feet.” Because to the north-west is the River Ravi which is liable to flooding, and to the east is the Indian border. However, since the thawing of relations between India and Pakistan, the government has directed some efforts to develop the eastern side of the city as well.
Khan roughly estimates city sprawl to the south in the shape of private housing schemes has made about 150 kilometres of road length available to the LDA. “It is worth billions of rupees. But ironically it is available in bits and pieces, depending on the location of approved housing schemes. There are missing links that must be filled to actually construct a road of significant length.”
Vandal is not surprised. Lahore has developed on what he says a Kangroo pattern. “The government allows development after intervals, and when you take an aerial view of these developments it seems the growth has been in the form of leaps, very similar to the way a kangroo moves. The people then fill in the space left vacant between two leaps. From Chauburji they moved to Samanabad then to Iqbal Town, and people developed the in-between space gradually. The same pattern continues, year after year.”
What will make things happen differently? Extensive road network? Better traffic management? “Not alone,” holds Reza Ali. “Institutions that run the city need to be reconstructed. People should have a grip over elected bodies rather than provincial governments. Let’s not fix the pipes but fix the institutions that fix pipes.”
With the construction of the Dharampura underpass, the Punjab government has clearly embarked on a huge expansion of its road network, and there seems to be no shortage of funds. “The Punjab government is pouring in funds to develop the Canal Bank Road as an expressway through the central parts of the city and air and dry ports, more importantly the Indian border,” says Khushal Khan, Chief Engineer Tepa. Next, he says, “there is also a plan to widen the same route between Defence Road crossing and Jallo from two lanes to three. A service road will also run along this.” The idea: “The road when complete will not only give better access to central parts, but also ensure smooth distribution of traffic to other corridors of the city.”
What perhaps sparks most excitement in him is the road that will run through the Punjab University, connecting Maulana Shaukat Ali Road to Wahadat Road to Multan Road and eventually Motorway. “The Punjab government has already approved the project. However, negotiations with the authorities at the Punjab University are underway,” he reveals.
That is the existing scenario of Lahore presented in the executive summary of Integrated Master Plan of Lahore, approved by the Lahore Development Authority late last year.
The vision is splendid and very 21st century. Achieving it, however, will be challenging. Because, says Professor Pervaiz Vandal, “Master plans never work. No plan in the world has so far been fully implemented.” Take the case of Islamabad, he explains, the plan proposed by C. Doxiades, who was a gift to us from the Ford Foundation, was a complete disaster. “Plans are made functional after adjustments. The grand scheme becomes pragmatic after input from locals. Plans can comprise only guidelines,” he emphasizes.
Then again he points out that Gulberg’s Mini Market is mismanaged. “Where in the world will you see cars parked around a roundabout and people devouring chaat and bun kababs?” he asks. He places the management of Hussain Chowk in the same category. He asks again: “Does it make sense to let a marriage hall function on one side of the roundabout? When the cars of invitees are parked around the hall, the traffic gets clogged and hence chaotic. And whatever about the fuel station in the heart of residential localities?”
