Daily Times

Karachi: Lyari Expressway has become a favorite hangout of drug addicts and other anti-social elements, whose free movement on this fast moving road is not only a grave danger for motorists, but they are also a big security risk for this important expressway passing between densely populated areas of Karachi.

Travelling on the LEW one could spot gangs of drug addicts at different points of the expressway from Suhrab Goth to Mauripur Road. The opening of the LEW at Suhrab Goth is occupied by pushcart vendors and illegal parking of vehicles particularly rickshaws and taxis. This area is very filthy with heaps of dirt and garbage.

There are no protective walls on both parts of the LEW to deter people from coming to this road. Hence, street children, beggars, rig pickers and drug addicts freely roam on the expressway posing a grave danger not only to their own lives but also for the lives of motorists, who drive their vehicles at an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour.

The National Highway Authority (NHA) that collects the tool tax has failed to erect protective walls and barriers to deter free people living along the LEW to walk and roam on the expressway. The area police do not patrol in these vicinities and anti-encroachments department is not interested to remove a large number of illegal structures constructed adjoining the LEW.

However, the most serious danger is the present of several dozens of drug addicts who freely use narcotics on the expressway and cross this high-speed road in a state of stupor. Their movement compels driver to suddenly apply brakes and it increases the chances of overturning of fast moving vehicles or their pileup.

The commuters using the LEW have demanded of the National Highway Authority, anti-narcotics force, area police and other concerned agencies to take notice of this grave situation and do the needful on priority basis.

Published in Daily Times, August 1^st , 2017.