PESHAWAR, Sept 20: A lack of concern for common people’s problems on the part of traffic police and other authorities concerned, has led to the creation of an unauthorised fruit market and a taxi stand in a busy locality in the Cantonment area.

Vendors almost block the Mian Iqbal intersection on the Stadium Road in the Cantonment area in the afternoon, leaving only a small space for pedestrians.

In the evening, taxi drivers park their vehicles in the centre of the intersection despite the presence of traffic policemen in the area.

The traffic police have permanently blocked the intersection by building a concrete divider on the Khadim Hussain Road. If someone coming from the main Saddar Road wants to go straight to the Stadium Road, he has to turn near the West-Cantt police station, where the traffic signal never works.

More than 50 vendors also throw waste on the important intersection, polluting the atmosphere with stench.

Shopkeepers have encroached upon footpaths on both sides of the road, displaying their wares, thereby creating more problems for motorists and pedestrians.

Traffic police add to the problem by not maintaining a smooth traffic flow between Saddar Road and Stadium Road.

Acknowledging the problem of illegal vendors, Cantonment’s executive officer Mohammad Rafi said that their staff regularly raided the area and imposed fines of upto Rs1,500 on individual vendors.

He said that previously the Cantonment Board had only a single vehicle for such raids, but now it had acquired another vehicle to keep a better check on illegal vendors.

“We have built a concrete divider on the intersection to help the public transport,” said SP Traffic Mohammad Ali Gandapur.

But because of the setting up of a bus stop exactly at the end of the Saddar Road, the traffic police created difficulties for the traffic going towards the Saddar Road from the Khadim Hussain Road. The SP traffic admitted that encroachment was a major problem standing in the way of smooth traffic flow at the intersection.