RAWALPINDI: The City Traffic Police and traffic engineers have come up with a revised strategy for the remodeling of Marrir Chowk aimed at giving free way to traffic on Murree Road to end congestion.

According to the new plan, traffic coming from Kamran Market will not be allowed to cross Marrir Chowk to take Rashid Minhas Road. Instead, the traffic will take a left turn towards Murree Road to move towards Katchery after taking a turn near the Leh Bridge.

This will give the traffic coming from Katchery Chowk and intended to move towards Liaquat Bagh a clear way. Similarly, traffic coming from Katchery Chowk and intended to move towards Kamran Market will have to take a left turn towards Saddar and then a u-turn to move to Kamran Market.

The remodeling of Marrir Chowk and construction work on some of its sides have been started and will be completed as soon as possible.

A police spokesman said they have been doing their best to ensure smooth flow of traffic during the construction work by deploying extra wardens at the site to facilitate motorists.

In April, traffic engineers and the traffic police had made fish belly u-turns at three points - Liaquat Bagh, St Mary’s School and near Marrir Chowk - by closing the busiest Marrir Chowk to make Murree Road signal-free. But after realising that closing Marrir Chowk had led to more gridlocks, they decided to reopen the roundabout.The two fish belly u-turns were constructed one near Leh Bridge on Murree Road and the other near Marrir Chowk, on Saddar side.

In addition, the Marrir Chowk crossing was closed as motorists coming from Katchery Chowk had to take a left turn towards Saddar to reach the fish-belly u-turn to go to Liaquat Bagh.

Though the Marrir Chowk crossing was reopened, the Liaquat Bagh crossing remained closed as it gave good results.

Still the police are facing problems in ensuring the smooth flow of traffic at Marrir Hassan because of a bottleneck, mushrooming of vendors and wrong parking. Apparently, the traffic police and engineers seemed less interested in removing hurdles from Marrir Hassan. However, people are still hopeful that the authorities concerned will take some measures to clear the trouble area.

When a senior warden deployed at Liaquat Bagh was asked about the traffic situation, he said the closure of Liaquat Bagh Chowk crossing was giving good results as traffic coming from Committee Chowk was plying signal free.

He suggested widening of the road from St Mary’s School because traffic coming from Committee Chowk slowed down after approaching the fish-belly u-turn in front of the school due to the narrow road.

An old-time resident of the city said one of the major problems for the traffic police was lack of parking plazas or spaces. Encroachments, which are beyond the control of the traffic police, are another major issue.

“Police can well implement traffic laws provided the public transport is given bays, parking plazas are built and encroachments are removed,” added a traffic warden.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2021