RAWALPINDI: Traffic engineers have recommended that four kanals of land be acquired to make fish belly U-turns in order to make Murree Road signal free.

However, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem has refused to acquire land saying this will anger the business community.

In a meeting with Acting Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal, traffic engineers of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) suggested four kanals of land be acquired for fish belly U-turns at four points including in front of RDA offices, St Mary School near Liaquat Bagh, Naz Cinema Chowk and Nawaz Sharif Public Park.

However, Rawalpindi Mayor Sardar Naseem said it will not be possible for the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation to acquire the land because after the Metro Bus Project land acquisition, traders and the business community on Murree Road will not be willing to give up more land for development purposes.

He said it was very difficult to acquire land as the provincial government was facing multiple political and financial problems and cannot afford to alienate the business community with forced land acquisition for development.

Says Punjab government cannot afford to alienate business community by asking them to give up land for development work

The plan was therefore rejected and the commissioner asked traffic engineers to present another plan so traffic issues on Murree Road are solved and emphasised that this should be done at all costs.

The experts suggested fish-belly U-turns should be constructed on at least two sites on trial basis on Murree Road in front of St Mary School and Nawaz Sharif Park without acquiring land and this suggestion was accepted.

The commissioner asked the authority concerned to start the project without delay and also directed the RDA to clear encroachments along Murree Road from next week.

He directed the traffic police to make plans for traffic management and also help the civic body remove encroachments to avoid traffic congestion during school and office timings and that more traffic wardens should be deployed to manage traffic.

He asked the civic body to repair all traffic signals as most of them have developed faults and said alternate power supply should be arranged to run these signals in case of power cuts and load shedding.

A senior RDA official told Dawn establishing the fish-belly U-turns will require a lot of money and that the civic agency had constructed two for Rs10 million in the past.

He said the best option to control traffic is to make Murree Road signal free.

“According to a study conducted by the RDA in 2013, more than 275 vehicles passed by Murree Road every 15 minutes,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017