PESHAWAR, Dec 23: Peshawar Nazim Ghulam Ali has vowed to clear the city of encroachments on busy roads to solve the problem of traffic jams in peak hours. Talking to Dawn, the nazim said he wanted to make Peshawar the region’s model city that linked the Central Asian states with other regional countries.

Mr Ali said encroachments and unregistered vehicles were the two problems which needed handling on priority.

He underlined the need for revamping the building control laws, so that illegal occupation of land could be checked. He said introduction of land use-management was a solution to end the problem in the district.

The Nazim said he had chalked out a comprehensive plan to remove encroachments and end traffic jams in the densely-populated city areas.

He said all the wholesale markets, which had been shifted here some 26 years ago, would be re-shifted outside the city onto the G T. Road.

In 1979, he said, the bus stand, and fruit and gur wholesale markets had been shifted to make the city spacious and streamline the traffic, but after 30 years, citizens were faced with the same problem.

This problem needed to be tackled with courage and justice, because the entire civic system was about to collapse, he claimed.

He said the district administration had decided to shift the fruit and vegetable markets, and bus and truck stand to out of the Ring Road area. For this purpose, he said, the district government was planning to purchase 1,500 acres along the G. T. Road.

The Nazim said he had ordered the department concerned to ban the sale and purchase of land from the Ring Road to the Chamkani Morr.

The district government, he said, had also planned to introduce modern housing schemes around Peshawar. He said the new settlements on the G. T. Road would lessen traffic burden on the Ring and University roads.

Mr Ali opposed new construction on the Ring Road because it had virtually became a commercial zone.

The district nazim expressed the hope that the provincial government would provide him funds for the beautification of the city.