KARACHI, Feb 13: Commuters may face hardships from Wednesday as the city government has declared I I Chundrigar Road a bus-free zone to, what it says, ease the traffic congestion.

According to the plan, the busload will be shifted from I.I. Chundrigar Road to M.A. Jinnah Road where a counter-flow arrangement has been made exclusively for public transport.

The city government has designed a new route for public transport, according to which all buses, minibuses, coaches and large buses would proceed to Jinnah Bridge to come back on M A Jinnah Road. They would then take a turn to Talpur Road to enter Sharah-i-Liaquat to proceed towards their respective terminuses.

Currently, public transport coming from different areas reaches Mereweather Tower from where they take a turn on I.I. Chundrigar Road to enter Talpur Road.

From Wednesday, all public transport coming through Shaheen Complex for their onward journey to Mereweather Tower through I.I. Chundrigar Road would be diverted to Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road and they would hit M A Jinnah Road at Lighthouse traffic signal for their onward journey to Merweather Tower.

Officials in the City government claimed that the plan was designed to ease traffic flow on I.I. Chundrigar Road.

They expected that the load of cars and other small vehicles would automatically shift to I.I. Chundrigar Road from M.A. Jinnah Road.

The officials said a shuttle bus service from Saddar to Mereweather Tower through I.I. Chundrigar Road would, however, be arranged for daily commuters. For the shuttle bus service, a new route under Urban Transport Scheme (UTS) has been allocated. Officials did not disclose the number of buses to be available on shuttle route.

However, commuters working in public and private offices located on main I.I. Chundrigar Road said that they might face severe hardships in the absence of public transport on the main artery.

They said that the number of shuttle bus service would be limited while commuters and visitors of those offices located on the thoroughfare were in a large number.

Besides, motorists feared that under the new arrangement, there would be congestion and clogging on M.A. Jinnah Road, especially at the junction of Talpur Road where the buses returning from Jinnah Bridge would have to negotiate a turn to enter the Talpur Road.

They said that the busload at Jinnah Bridge would also create a mess over there while the M A Jinnah Road would be crowded enough and would lead to severe traffic chaos.

The traffic police officials were reluctant to offer any comment on the new scheme, and said they would implement the plan and deploy traffic police to control the traffic flow from Feb 15.