I AM residing in the area around the Kahuta Road in Islamabad for the last about one year. The section of the road near Kak Bridge in front of Sihala police station and from there to the road connecting with the main Islamabad Highway has remained in a dilapidated condition. There is in fact no road; just large-sized potholes. It seems that this part of the road is not within the area of the beautiful city of Islamabad, rather part of some extra-terrestrial landscape.

The reason of the bad road condition is heavy traffic and non-drainage of rain water due to constructions on the left edge of Soan river. It is a patch of road about a kilometre long and it takes about 10-15 minutes to cross it. This busy section has heavy traffic, including vehicles coming from Azad Pattan, tankers and loaders, official buses of nearby government facilities, and small vehicles like the one that I have.

While crossing this section, the smaller cars are always in danger of being crushed under some swaying difficult-to-control large tanker/container negotiating the uneven road and its potholes.

I have been doing it for a year. Perhaps no one has reported the matter yet or it has been ignored altogether by the authorities.

The condition of this section of the road will only worsen in the coming monsoon season. I urge the relevant authorities to get the problem resolved without further delay.

Dr. Ahmad Qureshy

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2021