Daily Times

Urban planning is a process of elaborating solutions that aim to enhance an existing area and create new urbanization in a given region. It deals with the processes of production, structuring and appropriation of cities. It is done to ensure what measures should be taken to improve the quality of life for the inhabitants, including matters such as transport, security, access opportunities, roads, and even interaction with the natural environment. Urban planning concerns itself with both the development of open land and the revitalization of existing parts of the city, thereby involving goal setting, data collection and analysis, forecasting, design, strategic thinking, and public consultation. For a populous country like Pakistan, it is vital to have the best urban planning so that our people can travel on safe roads, breathe in fresh air, and feel close to nature. And for that, it is a must to have well-organized parks and wide roads.

Metropolitan Corporation Lahore (MCL) is responsible for performing all the necessary developments in the city. It includes the development of parks, roads, planting trees, etc. After the survey of various towns, I came to know that the department is working outstandingly under the prime supervision of Syed Ali Abbas Bukhari (Chief Officer MCL). He is a competent officer who is doing an amazing job by keeping the roads and parks clean and sound to ensure inhabitants can safely travel intercity. However, the road mafia, including contractors, MNAs, and MPAs, are trying their best to fulfill their pockets and make life miserable for the people of Lahore. The newly constructed roads of housing societies, including NFC, UET housing society, Nasheman-e-Iqbal, IEP town, DHA Rahbar, Wapda town phase-II, Nawab town, Architect society, and Iqbal town, have got cracks, due to which a number of accidents happen. All these roads are not more than six months older and are badly damaged.  Mostly, young ones die in such road accidents, which is undoubtedly a very sad reality. In addition, during the monsoon season, it has been seen that the rods are filled with water up to 2 feet high, causing immense trouble for the citizens. It feels like there are no drain pipes with proper width on the roads. In comparison with developed countries, in Pakistan, all the green belts are higher than the roads. Contrary to that, the green belts are elevated below the roads in states like the USA, UK, and Canada. This way, whenever there is rain, all the water automatically goes into the green belts, letting the roads clean and enhancing their life as well. As long as major roads were under the supervision of highways, there were no such issues.

If we compare the situation with our neighboring country, India, it is a lot better. The country is growing rapidly and has become one of the leading states in the timber industry. Along with that, the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) ensures that all roads and highways are constructed according to international standards. In addition, hundreds of thousands of trees are installed on both sides of the highways and major connecting roads to keep the environment clean for the next 15 to 20 years. Additionally, the plantation of (Abele) is strictly banned as it absorbs 65% of the water. Instead, they focus on planting Diyar wood so that the locals can meet all the basic necessities. Similarly, a number of countries focus on planting more and more trees on major roads, highways, and motorways to decrease global warming and make the roads look beautiful and peaceful.  A major reason behind poor road infrastructure is the corruption of government officers and powerful, as well as the additional fees and charges the contractor must pay. After giving 10% as a security fee, 16% tax, 12% commission, and 7% to the concerned department, the road contractor is left with only 55% budget, in which he has to complete the entire project. So, how can a company finish the road when it is only provided half the funds? And that is when the company uses low-quality material and tries corruption wherever it can to meet all its expenditures. As opposed to that, the developed countries have a hard and fast rule. The chief engineer there gets 1% as the incentive, which is a decent amount to meet all his personal expenses and pay him for his efforts. In Pakistan, we should also adopt a similar model and reward engineers and workers to keep them motivated. This way, they will do their jobs quite honestly. Sadly, here the contractor saves money by installing curve stones alongside the road costing Rs.750/piece. But it does not ensure the safety standards of the roads.

Since the inception of our country, there have been only 2 major forests, of which Changa Manga is one. Though, we all know their importance and how much they account for producing natural oxygen. And due to this, we are taking our part in increasing global warming.  We as a nation should convince our government to focus on improving infrastructure so that the citizens can safely travel. Also, the government must ensure the newly constructed roads are according to international standards, durable, and solid enough to last for even several decades. And this is not possible until or unless we make the departments corruption free and educate our people about being patriotic. During the last 75 years, no doctor has thought of advanced medical treatment, no engineer has focused on development, and no farmer has emphasized on using modern techniques to enhance the growth of fields. All educated people should think of something advanced to make the processes quicker and more efficient and make Pakistan prosper.

The writer is a senior social and economic analyst. He can be reached at figure786@hotmail.com.