RAWALPINDI: Traffic police, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and its traffic engineering and metropolitan wing have failed to resolve congestion issue on Murree Road and Raja Bazaar.

For the last three days, the city roads have witnessed gridlocks. On Thursday and Friday, traffic police blamed VIP movements for the mess.

However, long queues of vehicles were also seen on almost all the roads, including Murree Road, Liaquat Road, Raja Bazaar, Committee Chowk, Rawal Road, Airport Road, Saddar, transit camp, Bank Road and Haider Road even on Sunday.

On Peshawar Road, Haider Road, Liaquat Road, Raja Bazaar and Saidpur Road, traffic police were nowhere to be seen and the traffic signals were switched off in the afternoon.

Traffic police blamed the ongoing construction work on Metro Bus Project on Murree Road, the reconstruction of Airport Road and encroachments in Raja Bazaar for the mess.

When contacted, City Traffic Officer (CTO) Shoaib Khurram Janbaz said vehicular movement remained slow on Murree Road and Airport Road due to the construction work. However, for Raja Bazaar, he said the Rawal Town Municipal Administration (RTMA) had failed to remove encroachments despite repeated requests by traffic police.    

He said traffic police had installed a signal at Marrir Chowk on a trial basis but now it would be replaced with fish bellies to make the busy crossing signal free.

However, commuters came up with other reasons for the traffic jams.

“Instead of regulating vehicular movement, the traffic police remain busy handling VIP routes on The Mall, Airport Road, Murree Road and Peshawar Road,” said Asad Mehmood, a resident of Chaklala Scheme-III. He said three VIP routes at Ammar Chowk daily disturbed traffic movement.

“My father got stuck in a traffic jam on Airport Road and reached Ammar Chowk from Shah Khalid Colony - a distance of about four kilometres - in an hour,” said Ammar Ali, a resident of Jhanda Chichi.

Mohammad Akhter, a resident of Usmanpura, said traffic remained jammed in Raja Bazaar because the police allowed trucks to enter the city areas even at daytime. He said the traffic policemen also allowed the public transport vehicles to park on Jinnah Road and Liaquat Road in Raja Bazaar.

“Encroachments on Iqbal Road, Bara Market, Liaquat Road and even grain market have increased but the RTMA officials are taking bribes from stallholders and not removing them,” said Ahsan Raza, a resident of Nayya Mohallah.

When contacted, RTMA spokesman Tahir Mehmood Khan said officials may be involved in such a practice but it was the duty of the police to remove the stalls from the roads.

The RDA has failed to make any plans for traffic engineering over the last 10 years.

“The RDA is still busy with the Metro Bus Project and its engineering department has not initiated any measures to resolve the traffic issue,” said an official of the RDA.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015