Rawalpindi: Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road: CTP’s signal-free plan draws a blank

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Imran Asghar
RAWALPINDI: The City Traffic Police’s (CTP) experiment to make Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road signal-free has gone down like a lead balloon, as the road and its links roads could be seen chock-a-block with traffic all the time causing wastage of time and fuel and botheration to the motorists.

During a visit to Murree Road, Saidpur Road, Sadiqabad Road, Double Road and 5th and 6th Road on Monday, Daily Times found that there’re long lines of vehicles parked bumped to bumper, with traffic wardens manually controlling the traffic at some places where the traffic filters were out of order.

Several motorists and cabbies complained that closure of crossings at Chandni Chowk, 5th and 6th Road and Double Road was causing long snarl-ups. They were of the view that the link roads of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road were not so wide and spacious to absorb a sea of vehicles.

Muhammad Saeed, a cabbie, said that the CTP’s experiment did not match the ground realities. He said Islamabad Highway or other roads of the capital city of Islamabad could be declared signal-free because the roads there had been built keeping in mind the future requirements.

Younus Afsar, a motorist, said that the CTP’s plan had come a cropper because traffic coming from the link roads could not get directly onto Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road. He said the experiment had benefited the motorists bound for Islamabad, but it was creating problems for the residents of Rawalpindi.

Ejaz Bashir, a motorist, said that less attention of traffic wardens to inner city roads was causing traffic jams. He said most of the roads including Saidpur Road, Asghar Mall Road, Banni Road and Jamia Masjid Road could not absorb traffic flow unless all the crossings on Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road were reopened.

He further said that majority of the inner city roads were dilapidated and urged the CTP bosses to prepare another plan to regulate traffic.

Muhammad Yasir, a driver, said that during school hours it was hard to drive on Saidpur Road. He said Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road could be signal-free if the CTP gave more attention to the inner city roads.

Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Raja Riffat Mukhtar said that over 1,000 vehicles crossed each signal on Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Road in one minute and making the road signal free had proved a success.

He said lack of parking lots, congested roads, untrained drivers, slow-moving vehicles and other problems were hindering the flow of traffic on different roads of the city.

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