RAWALPINDI, May 2 To cope with the increasing flow of tourists to the hilly resort town of Murree with the start of the summer season, the Rawalpindi district administration has decided to open the Murree Expressway up to Patriata much before its completion time.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the local administration and National Highway Authority (NHA) officials convened by Commissioner Rawalpindi division Zahid Saeed here on Saturday. The commissioner directed the officials concerned to complete the project before the scheduled target of July 31.

He said with the start of the summer season, the flow of traffic towards the hilly resort town was increasing and any kind of bottleneck in traffic would cause inconvenience to the tourists. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures to address all the related issues to ensure smooth traffic flow towards the popular tourist destination.

The officials of the NHA informed the meeting that at present construction and repair work on the retaining walls and landslide areas was in progress and efforts were being made to settle matters regarding installation of overhead bridges on the expressway in consultation with the local residents.

The commissioner asked the officials of the NHA to expedite the necessary repair work and remove encroachments along the Murree Expressway on a priority basis by keeping in view the grievances and concerns of the local inhabitants.

The affected people should be accommodated in terms of protecting their legal rights. However, all such miscreants who wanted to interrupt the ongoing works of the executing agencies and create law and order situation should be dealt with iron hands, he added.

Mr Saeed expressed concern over the growth of encroachments along the expressway falling in the jurisdiction of “right of way” area, and directed the local administration to take immediate action for the removal of the encroachments under the law and extend all possible assistance to the NHA.

SSP Yasin Farooq said the executing agencies would be given all assistance and security while carrying out their work.