KARACHI, Nov 6: The city district government Karachi has decided to conduct a survey of all intersections in the city to assess the traffic volume on these spots and to recommend steps to ensure smooth flow of traffic in the city.
There are about 150 signalized intersections and more than 200 non-signalized intersections throughout the city which will be surveyed.
Survey of intersections was conducted in the city twice since partition — first in 1984 and then in 1992 by the defunct KDA, said an official of the city government.
Karachi needs such surveys due to rapid increase in traffic volume and increasing number of road-related accidents for assessing the traffic pattern in the city,but unfortunately successive city authorities did not pay a heed to this issue, which resulted in an irregular traffic system.
The official said such surveys are conducted to devise strategies and planning for future so that traffic could be streamlined.
Emphasizing the need of these surveys, official said in other cities of the world, this work is done on a regular basis so that planners could devise policies in the light of these surveys.
But Karachi has been ignored, the official remarked and added that limited resources do not allow this kind of project every year. However, it must be made mandatory to conduct these surveys after a period of three to five years.
Naming different surveys including origin and destination, travel speed, volume count, parking surveys, the official maintained it must be a continuous process so that contemporary needs for improving the traffic system could be assessed and policies formulated to bring a change in the shabby traffic culture of city.
Such projects help avoid daily traffic jams and other traffic related problems, but huge funds are required for conducting the survey, the official said and termed the dearth of funds as one of the main reasons hampering this project.
The World Bank had funded the project twice besides provisions were made in the defunct KDA budgets, but no amount has been specified in the current CDGK budget.—PPI