MUZAFFARGARH, April 1: The execution of Taunsa Rehabilitation and Modernisation Project is causing frequent blockages on Taunsa-Multan Road, inconveniencing commuters, especially the patients, while the ongoing construction work is likely to take another year in its completion.

Many construction companies are working on the mega project to rehabilitate and revamp Taunsa Barrage on River Indus and they close this otherwise busy road to accomplish their engineering wonders for large intervals of time, often spanning multiple hours without prior intimation.

Daily travellers, especially patients being taken to Multan from Taunsa and other localities across the river are the worst-sufferers of this bottleneck.

When Dawn correspondent visited the site on Tuesday, he saw an ambulance carrying two patients, Ibrar, 39, and Ghulam Ali, 48, from Taunsa THQ Hospital to Nishtar Hospital in Multan, trapped on Taunsa Bridge.

The contractor, Engineering Kinetics Limited (EKL), had shut the road for two hours because its engineers were to install computerised gates in the barrage in replacement of its old gates.

An EKL official told Dawn that the new gates were being installed in water thrust witnessed recently in the river to fulfil engineering requirements.

Many commuters stuck in the traffic-jam said they were facing acute problems because they could not reach their destinations on time.

EKL Administration Officer Tariq Niazi told Dawn that the company would complete the project to replace 10 more gates of the barrage by the end of 2008 and shutting the road for this purpose would, however, continue to carry out the rehabilitation work expediently.

Locals have urged the government to deploy traffic police on this road to enforce a traffic flow on the road otherwise a lifeline for the inhabitants dewelling across the river.