The city district government of Lahore (CDGL) has cleared the major arteries of encroachments in its ongoing drive to reclaim public space, but traffic issues remain in many places because of vehicles parked outside markets and workshops.
Lack of parking space is particularly a problem in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town and Ravi Town, which have congested roads and many markets. After a visit by city government teams, workshops on some roads moved their signboards and tools inside off the street, but continue to repair vehicles parked on the road. These hinder both pedestrians and vehicular traffic.
Lytton Road, McLeod Road and Montgomery Road in particular are as jammed with traffic as before the operation.
There are many workshops on these roads where mechanics can be seen working on motorbikes, rickshaws and other vehicles parked on the street. Some take up space marked permanently for public transport.
City government officials, speaking to The Express Tribune, did not indicate any plans to stop this practice.
The district coordination officer (DCO) said that it was the traffic police’s responsibility to crack down on such parking, as the city government did not have the authority to do so. “We are only required to take action against illegal parking stands in CDGL limits. Our operation is restricted to encroachments,” said DCO Ahad Khan Cheema.
City Division Superintendent of Traffic Police Captain Sohail said that parking was allowed in front of markets but double parking was not allowed. Due to the ongoing campaign against encroachments, he said, traffic police was also focusing much more these days on such types of illegal parking.
About parked vehicles outside workshops, Sohail said that if the city government notified these areas as no parking zones, traffic police would not allow mechanics to repair vehicles on the roads.
Tariq Zaman, the principal staff officer to the DCO, said that the city government was considering forming a special policy for Data Gunj Bakhsh Town and Ravi Town to allow workshops to continue to function unhindered, though nothing had been finalised yet.
“The ground realities are different here compared to other towns. It is not possible to restrict these showrooms or workshops to within their shops. These areas are business hubs and people from all over Punjab visit these markets,” he said.
Azam Khan, a rickshaw mechanic at Lytton Road, told The Express Tribune that the area was a good one to have a workshop because a wholesale market for rickshaws was located there. “We can’t shift the shops, it will ruin our business,” he said. “We have received reminders from the CDGL for removing encroachments but not against parking.”
Khan said he did not anticipate strong action from the government. “They are not in a position to stop parking in such areas as they are already under pressure from their own members due to the operation against encroachments,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2011.
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