PAKISTAN’S motorways have brought a welcome change in our travelling modes. After entering the motorway, one heaves a sigh of relief because everyone strictly observes traffic rules owing to the vigilant and diligent motorway police.

But, while travelling from Mianwali to Lahore recently, we faced a terrible traffic jam near Ravi Toll Plaza.

The mismanagement on the part of motorway authorities was at its peak. Hundreds of vehicles were stuck in the gridlock. The distance which we covered on the motorway in a timely manner lost its worth reaching Ravi Toll Plaza.

It took us almost 35 minutes to cover a distance of 500 metres to cross the toll plaza. While paying the toll tax, we asked the tax collector why there was such a mess near the toll plaza.

He replied that this was so because of the weekend. It means the motorway authorities are well aware of the root-cause of the issue but they ignored it on purpose. To facilitate the motorway-users, the authorities should increase the number of tax-collecting booths. In future, owing to the ballooning population, this situation will deteriorate further.

Muhammad Fayyaz
Mianwali

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2019