LAHORE, Aug 3: The fate of six roads that will link southern parts of the city hangs in the balance as the provincial government is reluctant to release the required funds.
The roads are to be constructed in corridors between the Multan Road and Ferozpur Road.
These roads were approved by Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool last year. The one linking the Jauhar Town Road and Maulana Shaukat Ali Road with the Raiwind Road via Shaukat Khanum Hospital was inaugurated by the governor last September. An amount of Rs200 million was allocated for its construction, but the money is yet be released.
The Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) completed a survey of the roads last year but was not able to initiate construction.
The other five structural roads, the College Road from Township to the Defence Road, an additional lane on the existing UBD Canal Road from Thokar Niaz Beg to Defence Road, rehabilitation of Defence Road from Bhubitian Chowk to Kahna Kacha railway crossing, a road from the Wahdat Road through the University Campus up to UBD Canal Road and a road from the Ferozpur Road to Maulana Shaukat Ali Road along Sattu Katla drain, were supposed to be completed this year at an estimated cost of Rs580 million.
The construction of a bypass from the UBD Canal Road to the College Road, which was begun by the Lahore Development Authority at a cost of Rs87 million last year, could not be completed either.
The Punjab government had reportedly promised to contribute 60 per cent of the estimated cost. The housing schemes in the vicinity were to be charged the remaining amount.
Over 140 housing schemes, comprising over 100,000 plots, are located in the vicinity of the six roads which will link them with the main city. The residents of these housing schemes would be affected by the delay in construction of these roads, said the TEPA officials.
They said the roads would not only provide the missing link in the proposed Lahore Ring Road but also help remove traffic congestion especially on the Canal Road.
The LDA had reportedly tried to charge the adjoining housing colonies 40 per cent of the development charges, but the housing societies refused to make the payment saying that they had already offered land for the roads.
LDA officials claimed that the provincial government did not want the City District Government to take up the project as it was itself interested in it. They said the Punjab government had also taken away from the CDG the Lahore Ring Road project, whose alignment was done by the TEPA. Similarly, the construction of six new underpasses in Lahore was not given to the CDG.
Officials of the provincial government were of the view that the Communication and Works department had no major project to undertake and was therefore handed over the Ring Road project.