KARACHI, Oct 6: Roadside stalls of vendors once again abound at the Empress Market, Saddar, a few weeks after the administration removed them to improve traffic flow.

Now commuters are stuck in traffic jams like before and pedestrians find it difficult to walk.

The market is the hub of public transport as more than half of the city’s routes pass through it. Besides, hundreds of thousands of motorists use this area daily.

However, 50 to 60 per cent of the roads and footpaths of this area are illegally occupied by vendors and pushcart sellers. Though traffic police are posted in the area but illegal bus stops are a routine sight.

For example, there is an illegal terminus of G-3 minibus at Jahangir Park and the transporters even park their buses inside the park through its broken boundary.

The issue of wrong traffic flow is also severe in the area and all types of vehicles run free in both directions.

Many schemes were announced in the past to improve traffic flow, re-route public transport and build pedestrian crossings but none of them has yet materialised.

A car-parking plaza constructed by the city government a few years at the cost of hundreds of millions of rupees also remains idle because of poor implementation of policies.—PPI