Out on a limb: pedestrians without overhead bridges, signboards

Commuters and pedestrians share Islamabad Expressway on a rainy afternoon. Photo: File

ISLAMABAD: A project to construct pedestrian bridges on the busy roads of Islamabad is in doldrums due to lack of coordination between Islamabad administration and the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

A senior official of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) told The Express Tribune that the project was started in a high level meeting conducted a few months back. Senior officials of CDA, ICT and Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) attended the meeting. ITP was tasked with conducting a survey of the roads and identifying places where overhead bridges and warning signboards were needed.

After that no practical steps were taken nor were any meetings held to monitor the project’s progress.

Regarding the project’s failure, an official of ICT said, “The responsibility lies with the CDA because they did not pursue the project.”

Waseem Arif, spokesperson ITP, corroborated the official’s stance and put the entire blame on CDA. “They were supposed to conduct the survey, not ITP,” he insisted.

The number of people living on both sides of Islamabad Highway has risen greatly in recent years. A property dealer attributed the rise in population alongside the roads to new housing schemes and cheaper cost of living.

Similarly, Murree Road leading up to Rawal Dam, Shahdara, Bhara Kahu and subsequently Murree and Azad Kashmir, has also witnessed a healthy increase in the number of people living near the road.

“These roads need immediate attention as a lot of accidents take place due to lack of bridges or signboards for the local populace,” said a traffic police official.

While travelling from Faizabad to Murree Road one can find only one pedestrian bridge and the situation is not much better elsewhere.

Farhan Alvi, who lives in Shahpur near Bhara Kahu, said that he used Murree Road to go to his workplace every morning. “It has become dangerous for both the motorists and the pedestrians, especially near Rawal Lake View Point and Athal Chowk, Bhara Kahu,” he said.

Azhar Khan, a resident of Malpur on the outskirts of Islamabad, said they had been urging CDA and ITP for the past many years to install an overhead bridge so that people can cross the road safely, but no one listened to them.

The official spokesperson of CDA, Ramzan Sajid, was unavailable to comment on the issue.

Critics of the overhead bridges say that pedestrians prefer crossing the road even when there was an overhead bridge nearby.

Bilal Hakeem, a civic activist, said it was imperative that CDA launched a campaign to spread awareness among the denizens of Islamabad about the purpose of overhead bridges.

“The people should know that these bridges are for their own safety,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2010.