MURREE/RAWALPINDI: Heavy traffic jams and long queues of vehicles exposed the claims of the traffic police and the

local administration that they had made plans to regulate the movement of vehicles in the hilly resort town during the Eid holidays.

According to information gathered by Dawn, more than 84,000 vehicles crossed into the hilly town from the toll plaza on Murree Expressway from 8am on Wednesday to 8am on Thursday.

On the other hand, only 36,000 vehicles existed from the toll plaza during the period. During Eidul Fitr holidays last year, about 35,000 vehicles had crossed the toll plaza towards Murree.

Most of the people arriving in the hill station were from Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and other parts of Punjab and other provinces.

A senior official of the district administration Rawalpindi told Dawn that all hotels in Murree had been booked and most of the visitors spent the night in their vehicles. He said the small town had not enough space to accommodate more visitors.

As the traffic police were finding it hard to manage the rush of vehicles, the district administration was informed that the chief minister Punjab had decided to go to Murree by road to spend a few days with his family at his personal house in Donga Gali.

The chief minister arrived in the town on Thursday afternoonWith no proper parking arrangements, the traffic police failed to control the heavy rush of vehicles and finally restricted the tourists to enter Murree on the third day of the Eid.

Under the plan, it was decided that only local residents of Murree and other adjoining areas and vehicles of emergency services would be allowed to enter Murree.

It was also decided to ban the entry of motorcyclists during the Eid holidays to avoid traffic problems.

However, thousands of bike riders managed to reach the town without even wearing helmets and added to the mess by involving in racing and wheeling.

In the plan prepared before the Eid, the administration had decided that heavy vehicles, including buses, would not be allowed to enter Murree. But long queues of such vehicles were also seen on the roads.

In his previous tenure, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had initiated a project to construct a parking plaza at Jika Gali.

But due to the lack of planning and poor feasibility report, a suitable site could not be chosen for the plaza.

After spending about Rs2 billion, only the already existing road to the plaza could be reconstructed which was damaged during digging for the construction of the plaza.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014