KOHAT, Oct 15: The first ever traffic plan will be enforced in Kohat after Eid holidays.

The plan has been developed to address traffic problems, which have worsened due to investment in the transport business by the families displaced from the troubled areas.

Currently, there are around 200,000 internally displaced persons in Kohat. Users of major roads in the city

complain of traffic congestion, especially in the morning and in the evening.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Police Mansoor Awan, the traffic plan is about restricting driving by underage children as well as without valid lincence and route permit, shifting bus stations from within the city, removing illegal horns from public transport vehicles, and removing pushcarts.

He told Dawn on Saturday that violators of traffic rules would be dealt with strictly without issuing more warnings to them.

The people have also blamed traffic congestion on broken and incomplete roads.

According to them, their repeated requests to the communication and works department for repairing broken roads and completing work on the new ones have fallen on deaf ears.

The last government released billions of rupees to the tehsil municipal administration for road repairs or construction but the people allege most of the money was embezzled.

They complain substandard material has been used to build Zargaran Bazaar Road, Women’s Degree College Road, Main Bazaar Road and other major arteries in and outside the city.

The people have also complained long delay in completion of work on Kohat Hangu Highway has stressed them out.

According to them, construction of the highway has been underway for three years to the misery of road users.

Also, the people have blamed the city’s traffic problems on closure of roads in the cantonment areas by the military authorities.

They said motorists, public transport vehicles and motorcyclists had been stopped from entering cantonment areas forcing them into covering long distances to reach destinations.

The people demanded permission for them to use cantonment area roads.