Model Town residents stranded by mud, rain

Dug-up road becomes quicksand for cars after downpour.

LAHORE:

Several residents of Blocks E, F and K in Model Town were left stranded in their homes on Sunday after a heavy downpour turned a dug-up road into a quagmire of mud and water.

The road leading to these houses was dug up some four months ago for sewerage works, but has not been rebuilt. Residents had already complained about trouble getting their cars out after rains in recent weeks.

“My car got stuck in the mud and I had to get people to help push it out. It is like quicksand,” said Muhammad Sami, a resident of K Block. He said during the dry season, residents had been badly affected by dust coming from the dug-up road. Now they were unable to take their cars out after the rain.

“It’s like living in a low-income area. When the monsoons come, everything gets flooded,” said Hashim Razi, another resident. He said that the rebuilding of the road had been delayed too long and it must start immediately.

The road was dug up for the laying of bigger sewage pipes as the existing lines were unable to cope with the load. The sewer runs from Garden Town through Model Town and off into Sattukatla drain.

The sewerage work is being executed by the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), while the construction of the road is the responsibility of the relevant town of the City District Government of Lahore and the Model Town Society (MTS).

The parts of the road in Garden Town and Link Road Model Town, up to the Sattukatla drain disposal station, are to be built by Gulburg Town. The parts in Blocks E,F and K will be constructed by the MTS.

Omer Sohail Butt, the MNA from the area who inaugurated the project four months ago, said that he had been told that the laying of the pipelines was almost complete. It would take another four days and the construction of the road would begin after that. He said that the required funds had been transferred to the departments concerned.

A Wasa spokesman claimed that the sewerage work was finished. He said that Rs130 million had been sanctioned for the project, of which Rs35 million was for road-building and the rest for laying sewage pipelines. He said Wasa had transferred the funds for the road to the MTS and it was now up to the society to finish the job.

Tanveerul Hassan, the new MTS vice president, said that they were waiting for the laying of the pipelines to finish. He said that the MTS had given Rs6.7 million to the contractor who would level the road.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2011.