LAHORE, July 25: Travelling on Multan Road from Chauburji to Scheme Morr was a nightmare on Wednesday owing to closure of a part of the thoroughfare near Samanabad Morr for repairing the collapsed portion of the main drain lentil there.
The portion of the thoroughfare started caving in early on Sunday morning and a 3X3 feet wide and some four feet deep hole developed in front of a bank branch near Samanabad Morr by the evening.
The Water and Sanitation Authority (Wasa) first parked a sewage truck before the ditch to prevent falling of any vehicle into it. Later, traffic police officials erected barricades around it, covering almost half of the eastern part of the thoroughfare, when the Wasa officials took away the truck.
Early on Wednesday morning, a scavenger was brought to the site after closing the eastern part of the road, used to approach Yateem Khana Chowk from Chauburji, Samanabad and Gulshan-i-Ravi.
Traffic police erected barricades to make the 20-foot western portion of the road a two-way passage. But the arrangement resulted in the worst-ever traffic jam on the thoroughfare and long queues of vehicles could be witnessed for hours on Multan Road.
Almost the whole lentil of the main drain was demolished, making a 20X30 feet hole there by noon. The eastern part of the road was partially opened to traffic an hour before sunset after removing debris and bringing in sand, crush stone and other construction material there.
Wasa officials working at the site told this reporter they had been directed by their high-ups to cover the hole as soon as possible.
Samanabad Morr is an important intersection of Multan Road, an artery that links Karachi with Punjab and the NWFP. Goods imported or exported to and from Punjab and the NWFP are transported to Karachi through it.
The volume of traffic increases manifold on weekends when a large number of people go to their native towns or Lahorites working in other cities return home.
Traffic volume on the thoroughfare has increased manifold during the last decade following construction of the motorway and a number of housing colonies and factories on Multan and Raiwind roads. Shifting of the inter-city bus and wagon stands on Bund Road is another contributing factor.
