Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Attock Oil Refinery (AOR) has become dangerous place generally for the entire capital city but especially for the people living nearby the refinery as in last ten days two oil tankers have met accidents due to which normal traffic was suspended on the main Morgah Road and inflammable oil was spilled from the tanker.

AOR is the pioneer of crude oil refining in the country with its operations dating back to 1922. It is a fact that the company has expanded its operations continuously but it has been failed to fully perform its corporate social responsibility function.

The main road, which links the said refinery with GT Road is in the same condition as it was in 1947. There has been no expansion on the road and lack of an alternative route. The situation has become worse when a private collage started its main campus on the same road last year, which is causing road blockage for hours in school timings.

In recent days on two separate occasions, the oil tanker with full of flammable oil faced accidents due to failure in balance of tanker and the oil get spilling on the road. The normal traffic for general public was suspended on both the accidents for hours, which creates a lot of problems for the people of the localities like Morgah and Khotha Kallan.

City Traffic Officer (CTO) Khurram Janbaz while talking to the Daily Times said, “We have already highlighted this issue with higher-ups to find out a mechanism to avoid such accidents in future whereas the main reason behind these incident is dilapidated situation of road and sharp turn on the junction of GT Road and Morgah Road.” CTO Khurram Janbaz further said, “The institutions like AOR should find out a way to avoid such accidents or otherwise shift their installments away from the city area”.

He said that a new road was built in 2006 for the general traffic to reduce traffic load from main road but this project was flopped because the new road was not in the position to afford the burden of whole general traffic whereas encroachment and continuously increasing commercial activities also force the public to use main road to access their homes.

A resident Ali Naseer of the area said, “We are facing several issues due to the refinery including traffic jam, environmental pollution and security threat as the refinery is main target of terrorists. Another resident of the locality told, “We don’t have the clean drinking water as water of our home become contaminated and we can easily feel smell of petrol in water which we are using.

EAORier, in last year 2015, the refinery administration tried to close the main road for general public forcefully but a mob reached to refinery main office and protested against the unjust behaviour of the refinery. As a result, the refinery once again opened the main road for general public and traffic.

AOR Media Manager Abdul Rahim declined to comment on the issue and said that he is not allowed to state any version on media and Administration whereas HR Manager Brigadier (r) Javed Iqbal Malik was called several times but he was unavailable to comment. Although the shift of refinery from its present place to outside the main city is a difficult job but it is the responsibility of AOR administration to take measures to avoid any inconvenience in future as well as to protect environment whereas the refinery should also contribute to the availability of basic utilities like clean drinking water.