LAHORE: The massive traffic jams, especially occurring in central parts of Lahore, are not only contributing to dust pollution and smog, but have also become a source of noise pollution for the city dwellers, while the government faces criticism for “doing nothing” to ease the public mobility and comfort the people at large.

The city witnessed another traffic chaos on Tuesday in the evening hours after the traffic police blocked The Mall and diverted traffic to other roads due to the protest by the visually-impaired persons, continuing for the last many days at Charing Cross.

At the Lahore High Court intersection on The Mall, the traffic was diverted to the road leading to Lakshmi Chowk. Due to the diversion, motorists got stuck on various adjoining roads, including The Mall (Regal to High Court Chowk), the Lower Mall (Town Hall to Amarillo Chowk), Egerton Road, Lawrence Road, Queens Road, around Jain Mandir, McLeod Road etc.

A motorist says when he reached near Charing Cross, traffic was diverted to the road leading to Egerton Road. “I returned to The Mall and reached Lawrence Road. From there, I reached Regal Chowk but again I was diverted to another road. This all took nearly 40 minutes extra,” he said, adding that he again got stuck on McLeod Road.

A motorist accused the traffic police of not adopting viable plans to ensure a smooth traffic flow.

“They [traffic police] are imposing fines of millions of rupees on motorist daily, but spending nothing to ease them,” he said.

However, a source in the traffic police says that the protests on The Mall, peak hours and the road closures due to the ongoing development work in the city are major causes of such traffic mess.

CITY ADMIN: In various operation during the last 72 hours, the city administration removed as many as 49,500 illegally displayed banners and 1,373 encroachments across the city.

According to Lahore DC Syed Musa Raza, the operations will continue without any discrimination until the last encroachment is eliminated.

Joint teams of Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore (MCL), Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera), and district administration are conducting these operations, under the assistant commissioners (ACs) supervision, he added.

The district administration has also devised a strategy to have a strict surveillance system to prevent re-establishment of encroachments, warning that a stern legal action will be taken against those offering resistance.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2025