Daily Times

LAHORE: Road users experienced massive traffic jams on city’s main and link roads due to police pickets and ongoing work on different development projects in the provincial metropolis on Saturday.

After the martyrdom of CTO Syed Ahmad Mobin, citizens are again facing serious traffic issues on main city roads. Several citizens stuck in traffic jams on different roads expressed were of the view that roadblocks in the name of checking and ongoing development projects had ruined the traffic system. They paid rich tribute to martyr DIG Ahmad Mobin’s services and recalled that he was often seen on roads where traffic issue was created due to protests and other issues.

They said that traffic wardens also seemed very much active when they found the DIG himself on roads and maintaining traffic flow immediately after being informed about traffic problems through radio message. They said that the DIG also used to order traffic officials concerned to immediately clear all hurdles and facilitate the road users.

On the other hand, several traffic wardens also said that DIG Ahmad Mobin actively responded to calls and he himself supervised the traffic wardens as they handled traffic.

They said that traffic officials used to perform their duties actively after seeing their top boss shoulder to shoulder with them on roads.

Meanwhile, commuters said that the traffic police had failed to maintain traffic flow and facilitate the citizens stuck in traffic jams due to construction on different important roads of the city. In this situation, the traffic burden increased on other roads and citizens faced more problems.

Some of the roads where traffic mess is a common sight are Jail Road, Canal Road at Jail Road underpass, Main Boulevard, The Mall, Ferozepur Road, Multan Road, Raiwind Road, Shahdara and the area behind the Punjab Assembly, especially during working hours.

As the city had been experiencing severe traffic problems for the past many days, traffic police officials had failed to solve the traffic problems. Wardens were mostly absent from the main squares, which created more abnormality in the traffic flow and resultantly, the traffic burden was shifted to other roads, chocking them up. Since these small arteries don’t have the capacity to accommodate that much vehicles, traffic jams are also being observed there.

Some commuters, while talking to Daily Times, said that the police should have devised a proper diversion plan to facilitate the citizens. They strongly criticised the traffic wardens for remaining absent from many intersections during peak hours.

Commuters on Ferozepur Road also complaint about massive traffic jam near the Kahna Fruit Market, caused mainly by encroachments and illegal parking stands of motorcycle rickshaws. They said that traffic wardens were usually not on duty, especially during peak hours, which added to the traffic mess.