KARACHI, Aug 8: Although traffic jams in the city have become a routine with the inundated roads for the past 10 days but the situation was nerve-racking on Tuesday. The situation at the main Korangi Road was the worst as people remained stuck in the traffic jam for over four hours.

Shaikh Iqbal, a resident of Defence View, called the Dawn offices at 9pm from his cellphone to say that his car had not moved a metre ahead for the past four hours. “I am stuck in the traffic jam near Hino Chowk, Qayyumabad since 5pm, while my house is only five minutes away from here”, he added.

Naveed Farooqui, another resident of Defence, who was on way to his house from Port Qasim, called Dawn at 9:30pm and said that he had been stuck in the traffic jam on the Baloch Colony Bridge since 7:30pm. “There are thousands of vehicles stranded on this expressway and the traffic has not moved ahead an inch for the past two hours”, he said.

Mr Farooqui said first he was trapped in the traffic jam at Quaidabad. “It took half an hour to cross the Quaidabad intersection as the condition of the road there is pathetic”, he said and added then the traffic police forcibly diverted the motorists to Rashid Minhas Road from Sharea Faisal due to the movement of some VIP.

“This is immoral, illegal and shameful on part of the authorities to force the traffic to divert for the smooth movement of the VIPs”, he remarked. “There seems to be no government in the city. Its total chaos”, he lamented.

Mr Farooqui said that the many motorists abandoned their vehicles on the expressway and left for their homes on foot. “I am in the middle of the traffic. I just cannot abandon my vehicle”, he added.

Traffic on the main Sharea Faisal moved at a snail’s pace due to the work on a sewerage line near Mehran Hotel. The repair work on the sewerage line, which burst due to rains, is being carried out since last Friday and both the tracks of the main artery are covered with the dug-up soil.

DIG Traffic Falak Khurshid said that the pace of the traffic was slow due to the dug-up roads which were further wrecked due to rainwater. He said the traffic slowed down in Clifton as the main Clifton road was inundated near Teen Talwar.

He said that work on the sewerage line at Sharea Faisal was expected to be completed by Wednesday and the traffic situation would improve accordingly. He also advised the residents of Defence and Clifton to use Sharea Faisal instead of Baloch Colony Bridge to avoid further congestion on the Korangi Crossing.

In their effort to ease out the situation at Sharea Faisal, the traffic police diverted the traffic to Saddar from the Fountain Chowk through Zainab Market. Similarly, the traffic was also diverted from the Arts Council Chowk to Lucky Star through Sarwar Shaheed Road.

However, the diversions of the traffic could not lead to the smooth flow of the traffic, which kept on moving at a very slow pace. “It took around half an hour to reach Lucky Star from Zainab Market”, a motorcyclist said.

Traffic moved with a snail’s pace on I. I Chundrigarh Road, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road, M. A. Jinnah Road, Shahrah-i-Liaquat, Saddar, Guru Mandir, Lasbella, Golimar, Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, University Road, Hasan Square, Nipa, and Rashid Minhas Road.