LAHORE, Jan 27: Residents, shopkeepers and motorists have been facing problems for the last five months due to the sewerage system replacement and ensuing reconstruction work in Garhi Shahu area on Allama Iqbal Road.

The residents call the project as one of the most delayed one ever launched by Wasa in the provincial metropolis.

During a visit to the area on Friday, the residents told this scribe that Wasa carried out the work at exceptionally slow pace that was adding to their miseries.

“Nobody can imagine as to how we are leading a life here; we have been facing traffic, pollution, sanitation and water supply problems simultaneously for the last five months. We are unable to understand as to why work on this busiest thoroughfare was allowed to be delayed unnecessarily,” Muhammad Saleem, a shopkeeper and resident of Allama Iqbal Road, told Dawn.

He said Wasa had closed right side of the road from Garhi Shahu Bridge Intersection (Muhammad Nagar) stop to Dharampura Canal Underpass for motorists since it launched work on replacing the sewerage system and carried out massive digging.

He said the ongoing work had adversely affected routine commercial activities as many of the traders and businessmen had become unable to even pay monthly rents of their shops.

“I have been paying rent by borrowing money from my friends and acquaintances for the last few months. I am seriously thinking to shift my business to some other place,” Saleem said dejectedly.

He urged Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who would visit development projects in other areas of the provincial capital quite often, to pay a visit to this project site also and direct the authorities concerned to complete the work expeditiously.

A resident, Ghulam Muhammad Butt, said motorists had been facing the worst congestion, causing minor accidents on a daily basis for the past few months. He said the removal of encroachments was also one of the main causes that delayed this project.

“Whenever officials start removing encroachments, the grabbers (mostly shopkeepers) try to engage them through litigation or through using political pressures. At this road too, some shopkeepers moved courts to obtain stay order and some used political influence to stop removal of encroachments, causing enormous delay in the execution of the project.”

He said the residents of localities such as Allama Iqbal Road, Mayo Gardens, Faisal Street, Takia Sunyara and Islam Park were facing serious problems of water and sanitation due to the ongoing work.

The Wasa managing director told Dawn the officials concerned (of Data Ganj Bakhsh Town) had almost completed sewerage system replacement between Muhammad Nagar (Gari Shahu Bridge Intersection) and Dharampura Canal Underpass stretch of the road. He said they had also handed over some sub-sections of this stretch to the NLC for reconstruction/rehabilitation of the road.

He said the government had extended the project to replace the sewerage system between Muhammad Nagar and the railway station stretch of the road and the authority had undertaken work on this project too.