CONTROLLING Rawalpindi’s traffic jams is beyond the capacity of the traffic police. Miles-long traffic jams can be seen in the morning rush hours and during afternoons when heavy and light traffic crawls bumper-to-bumper, leaving ambulances and school vans stuck in the traffic.

The reason is the lack of traffic planning over the years. The traffic congestion on Sawan bridge on G.T. Road has increased because of the poorly-designed roads and security checkpoints near Fauji Foundation hospital.

Beyond the Sawan bridge, a large number of private schools create daily traffic jams, blatantly violating traffic laws, while traffic police appear helpless. The signal-free Islamabad Expressway from Koral Chowk to Rawat, which was to be started during the previous government’s tenure, has also been put on the backburner owing to other priorities of the government.

If the traffic police remain a silent spectator and the government does not initiate the much-needed development projects quickly, the traffic gridlock will keep exacting a heavy toll on the hapless population that voted for the PTI to power in the hope of a better tomorrow.

Brig (retd) Raashid Wali Janjua
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019