KARACHI, May 29: Closure of the one side of Mauripur Road from ICI Bridge to Gulbai Chowk has created a great hardship to the people, especially commuters, visiting or passing through the area.

The road has partially been closed to facilitate construction work for Northern Bypass.

Traffic jam between the two points has become a routine and a large number of vehicles can be seen stranded there during peak rush hours. The construction of flyover at Gulbai has particularly been hindering the smooth flow of traffic as workers at this site have left a very narrow strip open to allow in vehicles. The worst hit appeared to be employees of different organizations who have to report to their workplaces punctually.

Northern Bypass, being constructed to shift the overall load of heavy traffic from the congested areas of the metropolis, was inaugurated by President Musharraf last year. Work on this project is being carried out expeditiously.

A few days back, one side of Mauripur Road was closed to traffic when laying of sewerage line and earth-filling work along the adjacent rail track was started. All vehicular traffic from and towards the port and M. W. Tower has been diverted to the other side resulting in traffic jams. Long queues of vehicles — trailers, oil tankers, coaches, buses, cars and carts — remains stuck up for long spells during day time. The vehicles have to move at a snail’s pace and take a long span of time to cover a very short distance. For passengers, including women, children and senior citizens, of public transport means have to suffer a lot while stranded in the vehicles amid scorching heat humid weather condition.

Parking of long vehicles and trucks along both the sides of Mauripur Road has further been aggravating the situation. There have been a number of goods transport companies situated on this route and the heavy vehicles are parked wherever there is some space for the loading and unloading purpose as well as for a break in the resumption of their scheduled onward journey.

Residents of the localities falling between Crown Cinema and TCF School have long been demanding removal of these companies from this congested area to the Hawkesbay Truck Stand exclusively reserved for the purpose some years back.

Apart from the regular travellers, those using this route in emergencies like fire tenders, ambulance services, doctors and patients, etc. are suffering a lot due to the closure of the road and the ultimate traffic jams.

The environment in the entire area has been polluted heavily owing to dust carried by air from the heaps of excavated earth scattered across the route.

Talking to PPI, some of the affected people held the concerned authorities responsible for these troubles pointing out that appropriate measures had not been taken to prevent such hardships. They said that no arrangements were made to ensure a smooth flow of traffic through alternative routes.

They were of the view that the authorities used to start development work without any planning and without caring for the people who might suffer due to their indifferent attitude.

A senior citizen said: “This is not a matter of a day or a month. We have been facing this kind of problems for many years,”

Suggesting solution to the traffic jam problem, another person said that movement of heavy vehicles during day time should be banned till the completion of the bypass. He pointed out that traffic flow was hindered when long vehicles tried to take a turn.

Many people criticized traffic police personnel for not discharging their duties efficiently. “Those deployed at Gulbai Chowk and ICI bridge keep sitting, smoking and chatting in their pickets while commuters remain stranded due to traffic jams,” they claimed.—PPI