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KARACHI, Nov 24: Mismanagement on the part of traffic police has been resulting in traffic jams in the city, and Monday was another day of chaos on major roads and streets in the metropolis.
In Ramazan, Karachiites almost daily witnessed jams, especially during peak hours, and motorists and commuters criticized the authorities for playing the role of a silent spectator, and for taking no steps to regulate the traffic flow.
Massive traffic jams forced people to break their fast on roads as traffic police appeared to be less helpful in regulating the traffic flow.
On many junctions, the traffic police officials had switched off the electronic signals and started managing the traffic manually. However, they often failed to control the traffic manually as vehicles got stuck up on various roads and streets in the metropolis, especially in the downtown.
Reports of traffic congestions were received from many areas, including M.A. Jinnah Road, Aga Khan-III Road, Zaibunnisa Street, Burnes Road, Garden Road, Soldier Bazaar, Guru Mandir, Business Recorder Road, Shahrah-i-Iraq, Abdullah Haroon Road, Fountain Chowk, a section of Sharea Faisal, Nawab Siddique Ali Khan Road in Nazimabad, Daudpota Road, Mansfield Street, and other arteries and their link roads.
Traffic jams on various routes started right at 2:00pm and continued till evening. The impact of traffic jams on these arteries affected the entire city as other roads in different areas also became crowded. Children, along with families, kept on crying as they remained trapped for long hours in the traffic deluge.
The traffic and district police found it difficult to handle the situation and people remained stuck up in the deluge of vehicles for several hours.
A number of telephone calls were received by the traffic police helpline-915, where the operators said that the officials were in the field and were trying to remove traffic congestion.
CHARGED PARKING: On commercial streets, such as Boulton Market, Zaibunnisa Street, Abdullah Haroon Road, Hyderi Market, Tariq Road, Nazimabad, and other areas where people in their vehicles visit bazaars during late hours are being charged by the operators of the charged-parking.
“As far as I know, the city government has awarded contract for charged parking to contractors restricting them that they would not charge after 10pm.
“I don’t know if the city government has extended these timings as the charged-parking operators remain active beyond the time-limit till 3am”, said Asim Khan, who visited a Saddar market on Zaibun Nisa Street.
A similar situation is observed on almost all commercial streets where the people have been visiting for shopping. “We are wondered as to why the city government or the traffic police are not taking any action on this violation. “Is it legal to charge parking fee beyond the official timing announced by the city government”, questioned a citizen.
A visit to these areas showed that charged-parking operators were making three lanes of motorcycles’ parking which has reduced the width of the road. Besides, the operators are also allowing double parking of cars on road, narrowing further the road and causing congestion.
