GUJRAT: A 25-kilometre patch of the Wazirabad-Daska road has been in a dilapidated condition for almost three years as heavy vehicles used this route to carry construction material to the site of the Sialkot-Lahore M-11 motorway project.

Scores of villagers living along the road staged a demonstration at Kundan Sian village on Friday against the poor condition of the road and demanded its immediate repairing.

The protesters chanted slogans against the government and local authorities for not paying attention to the issue despite repeated requests that according to them had caused a number of accidents. They were carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands and blocked the road for an hour.

Out of the damaged portion, 15 kilometres were located in Daska tehsil of Sialkot and 10km in Wazirabad tehsil of Gujranwala and by-polls are expected to be held in both these tehsils very soon.

The NA-75 (Daska) and PP-51 Wazirabad seats had fallen vacant due to the demise of PML-N’s Syed Iftikharul Hassan alias Zahery Shah and Shaukat Manzoor Cheema, respectively. In light of this situation, the protesters chanted “construct the road and get the vote”.

They said the area had been grossly neglected by the ruling party and if this callous attitude continued they would show their reaction in the by-polls.

Ali Raza Awan, a lawyer from Kundan Sian village, told Dawn that heavy machinery and vehicles for the motorway project had caused severe damage to this busy and important road linking Daska and Wazirabad.

He said the locals had lodged complaints on the citizen’s complaint portal and the Punjab highways department had also been submitted many applications for the rehabilitation of the route, but to no avail.

He said the residents along the road had paid a heavy price for the project and policy makers should devise a strategy to secure or rehabilitate the existing road infrastructure in any area where such a mega development activity was carried out.

Awan said some other link roads around the new motorway had also been damaged, adding that link roads were often not constructed with quality material to withstand heavy vehicles.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2020