KOHAT: Frequent traffic jams at the main artery between Kutcheri Chowk and Cinema Chowk has become a daily routine, creating problems for commuters in the city.

According to social and business circles, the artery bears the burden of 70 per cent traffic flow among various destinations in the city and scores of villages.

They said the elected representatives accompanied by protocol passed through the road easily and as such they had no idea of the problem being faced by commuters.

The artery remains choked from morning till late in the evening, forcing the commuters to wait for at least half an hour to cross over to the desired route.

The residents have been expecting for more than a decade that the lawmakers would seriously think about expanding the existing narrow roads and find alternatives to resolve the traffic issue.

The traffic from Peshawar Chowk to Cinema Chowk via Kutcheri Chowk gets jammed a number of times daily. The absence of traffic officials at main intersections further aggravates the situation.

When contacted, traffic warden Akbar Jan said that absence of any plan to broaden the main artery or build an overhead bridge and lack of parking space had been adding to severity of the problem. He said the present roads had become insufficient to bear the traffic burden due to uncontrolled growth in the number of rickshaws and motorcycles after the arrival of tribesmen since 2010.

The residents said they could get rid of traffic snarls if the police were deployed in the city’s main bazaars and plan with the traders was devised to control traffic flow.

GANG BUSTED: Lachi tehsil police busted a two-member gang of burglars here the other day and arrested a motorcycle thief.

Lachi DSP Haider Ali told a press conference that after a burglary case was reported teams were formed under SHO Mohammad Iqbal, which arrested two thieves who had allegedly broken locks of shops and took away cash and items. He said that Rs30,000 cash, 37 bottles of honey and a solar system were recovered from them. The suspects Mukhtiar Ahmed of Shahi Banda and Mohammad Siraj of Ghorazai Bala were caught from a house.

Similarly, they raided a house in Warshand and recovered a stolen motorcycle and arrested the suspect Jehanzeb Ayub.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2020