FOR the last more than a year, the deep digging of roads in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area is being carried out in the name of improving the drainage system. It is something that has been done repeatedly over the years without much of an impact when it rains. The inconvenience being caused presently to the area residents on this account will only be justified if the accumulation of water on the roads does not take place during heavy showers in the future.

My house is located on Khayaban-i-Bahria in Phase V close to the intersection of Khayaban-i-Shujaat and 26th Street. This patch, frankly saying, has been subjected to 26 horizontal road cuttings of around six inches in depth and 4-5 feet in width. There is a cutting around every 20 meters. It is now almost a month since the job was completed, but the road cuttings have not been filled up and brought back to the road level. The drivers of vehicles on this busy artery now mostly switch over to the incoming road for convenience, thus violating the one-way traffic flow.

Those few driving on the affected side of the road have to move in a zigzag fashion in search of less affected portions while having to slow down their vehicles 26 times. The relevant authorities should do the needful immediately so that the traffic may flow smoothly on the road.

Ammar Rahim
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2024