Lahore: 20 bottlenecks create traffic mess

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Arshad Dogar
Around 20 bottlenecks on City Roads have become permanent nuisance for Lahorites resulting in traffic mess for hours on daily basis and disrupting routine life, thanks to poor planning of City Traffic Police and City District Government Lahore.

Despite the fact that the traffic chaos is increasing day by day, the Punjab government and its civic agencies are lagging behind in taking steps to remove these bottlenecks for the last one and half decades.

According to traffic engineers and planners, the pace of development work for the improvement of road infrastructure is far behind the increasing number of vehicles in Lahore. The major and minor roads in the City have been clogged due to overflow of vehicles.

Experts are of the view that if some concrete steps were not taken to improve the infrastructure of roads, the traffic would be completely clogged by 2015. The bottlenecks are defined as the areas where special character of a road is missing at a certain point as if a road had three lanes and it is suddenly narrowed to two lanes or discontinued.

The City Traffic Police (CTP) and Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) have identified around 20 bottlenecks in the provincial metropolis, which have also been mentioned in Master Plan 2021.

These are Chowk Taxali, Chowk Chauburji, Chowk Istanbul, Chowk Davis Mall, Zafar Ali Road, Bhekewal Morr, Dubai Chowk, Kalima Chowk, Qainchi Amar Sidhu, Model Town Morr, Chowk Shalamar, Do Moria Pul, Moochi Gate, Minar-e-Pakistan (Azadi Chowk), Chowk Yateem Khana, Morr Samanabad, Scheme Morr, Qurtaba Chowk, Canal Bridge on Jail Road, Lakshami Chowk and Regal Chowk.

The Chowk Chauburji is one of the major bottlenecks in Lahore where four major roads intersect, University Road, Bahawalpur Road, Lower Mall Road and Multan Road. The Multan Road discontinues at Chowk Chauburji and leads to Lower Mall Road and creates a bottleneck when the University Road and Bahawalpur Road intersect two major roads. Traffic jams when it reaches at the Chowk Chauburji.

Chowk Davis on The Mall is another major bottleneck. The traffic heading from The Mall and GOR-I towards the Davis Road and from the other direction creates traffic jam on Davis Road, which is unmanageable for CTP.

The Zafar Ali Road links two major roads, The Mall and Jail Road. Here is also a major bottleneck as it halts flow of traffic due to its discontinuation. The traffic is most of the time jammed at the Jail Road close to the Zafar Ali Road traffic signal and on The Mall.

The Bhekewal Morr is still a bottleneck even after its remodelling as Main Boulevard Allama Iqbal Town discontinues at this point and the traffic comes to a halt.

The Dubai Chowk close to Moon Market Allama Iqbal Town is another bottleneck for traffic as the traffic heading from both sides of Nadeem Shaheed Road creates a mess on the Main Boulevard.

The Kalima Chowk has become a permanent nuisance for the commuters as two major roads including the Main Ferozepur Road intersect it. The traffic flow comes to a complete halt when traffic heading from Main Barkat Market and Liberty Chowk reach at the Kalima Chowk.

The flow of traffic from flyover of Kot Lakhpat on the Ferozepur Road is badly affected at Chowk Qainchi Amar Sidhu as the traffic takes sudden curve towards Walton Road and the traffic heading from Walton Road enters the Ferozepur Road. It is another bottleneck identified by the CTP.

The Model Town Morr is also a bottleneck on the Main Ferozepur Road as the traffic heading from the Kalima Chowk in smooth flow is disrupted here. The four lanes of the Main Ferozepur Road squeeze to two lanes near the Model Town Morr, which creates trouble in smooth flow of traffic.

The Chowk Shalamar has also been identified as a bottleneck as the traffic heading from Garhi Shahu flyover comes to a halt at its signal point. This point requires another flyover or underpass so that traffic coming from Grand Trunk (GT) Road could pass on directly.

The Do Moria Pul has become a big hurdle for the smooth flow of traffic coming from the GT Road and heading towards the Azadi Chowk. Traffic remains clogged for a long time there daily at Do Moria Pul owing to its poor management and poor road infrastructure.

The Moochi Gate and Minar-e-Pakistan (Azadi Chowk) are also hold-ups for the traffic and it had badly affected the capacity of Saggian Bridge. Neither the CTP nor the CDGL could have managed the deteriorating condition of these points even after some projects have been proposed by Tepa.

Chowk Yateem Khana, Morr Samanabad and Scheme Morr are also bottlenecks in the provincial metropolis as these three points traverse main Multan Road and create hassle in the smooth flow of traffic.

The Qurtaba Chowk is one of the major traffic blockage points in the provincial metropolis, which needs immediate improvement, management and solution. A major road named Jail Road discontinues at Qurtaba Chowk, which creates pressure on the already congested Ferozepur Road.

The Canal Bridge on the Jail Road is also a major bottleneck due to defective road engineering. Heavy traffic heading from the Canal Road and Zahoor Elahi Road fall on Shah Jamal Road and creates a complete chaos for hours. This had become a routine matter especially during peak rush hours.

The Lakshami Chowk, Regal Chowk, Akbar Chowk and Al-Jannat Marriage Hall are also traffic trouble points in the provincial capital, which could be resolved by CTP but the authorities concerned had not paid any heed to it for long.

A senior official of Tepa talking to The News said that encroachments on major and minor roads had blocked the smooth flow of traffic in the City, adding that these are one of the major factors behind bottlenecks.

Giving example of the GT Road, he said that structures erected by Railway department have halted the continuation of this road and a mess was being created near Ik Moria Pul. He said that it was necessary to continue the GT Road up to Azadi Chowk for uninterrupted flow of traffic.

He further said that inner area of the City like Fan Road, Macleod Road, Montgomery Road and Katchery Chowk were major bottlenecks and if the government takes it as a major project, a beautiful semi-ring could be constructed to remove the hurdles in the smooth flow of traffic.

He said that the bottlenecks have already been identified in the Master Plan of 1990 and the removal of these points was essential.

He said that the Main Boulevard Gulberg was another bottleneck as it terminates at the Jail Road while it should be continued up to the GT Road through a flyover.

He said that the removal of bottlenecks on roads was a very difficult task that was why no department bothers to take such projects even after the approval of the government. He added that the Hussain Chowk was also a bottleneck and a project for the construction of a flyover there towards Cantonment has been approved by the government. Replying to a question, the official said that site-specific solutions, which included separations, lane equality and flyovers, were required to be initiated without any delay to remove the traffic trouble points. It was learnt that the government has failed to initiate work on a pilot project on the Main Ferozepur Road through integrated traffic management system, which was directed by the former Punjab CM for five mega cities including Lahore.

Improper placement of traffic signals, missing signs on roads markings are also creating traffic mess in the provincial metropolis. Almost every big and small road is without proper road marking and signs even after the government have released huge funds for this purpose.

Moreover, a traffic study conducted by the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) in 2006 has shown that the traffic volume on all City roads has crossed the international standard capacity of lanes, that was 8,000 vehicles per lane.

According to the study, the City roads will get fully chocked by 2010 and 2015 due to increasing traffic volume in the provincial metropolis in case the government takes no initiatives to improve the roads and the traffic system.

The roads that are in alarming situation include the Canal Bank Road, Ferozepur Road, Wahdat Road, and Jail Road. The Mall, MB Garden Town near Barkat Market, Shahrah-e-Jamia Punjab, Shabbir Usmani Road, Maulana Shaukat Ali road and Multan Road.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=136154