‘Poor road engineering behind traffic congestion, accidents’

Several international principals are ignore in constructing of roads and underpasses

LAHORE: Poor road engineering is one of the major contributing factors to traffic congestion and road accidents, a senior traffic police officer shared with The Express Tribune on Thursday.

He said signal-free corridor, absence of a suitable U-turn for Farkhabad settlement near Shahdara Chowk, Jail Road Underpass, signal-free corridor, Mughalpura Chowk, Chowk Yateem Khana and other important points as the worst form of poor road engineering.

The officer added that unfortunately, there is an inherent inbuilt flaw in the working of different departments of the state machinery. Once a road has been constructed, it is the responsibility of traffic police to regulate traffic on it. However, the input of traffic police is usually missing in it.

Starting from Jail Road Underpass, he said that exit is constructed on the left side of the road throughout the road. However, the principle has been blatantly ignored in the case of Jail Road underpass where the exit is on the right side. It leaves not only traffic issues but also leads to many road accidents. He continued that the varying height of different underpasses on Canal Road. Height, of few, is 12 feet others are 14 or 16 feet.

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The driver of a vehicle that had passed from 16 feet height would presume it to pass from 12 or 14 feet also. There have been dozens of incidents of accidents as well as trapping of vehicles. He added that City Traffic Police Lahore (CTPL) has been consistently deploying wardens overnight at Jail Road underpass. Whenever it was left unattended, a vehicle would get trapped.

Another classic example of poor road engineering, he added, is the absence of a suitable U-turn for the residents of Farakhabad settlement near Shahdara Chowk. A commuter travelling from Shahdara to Farakhabad had to take a U-turn from Batti Chowk to reach home. It was a long distance. The commuter would try to go for a one-way violation instead of going too far.

The signal-free corridor, in particular, Jail Road and Center point Main Boulevard is another such example. He said, unfortunately, an “exit plan” an important aspect of the signal-free corridor has been ignored.

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He said that at a few points, the road from three, four or more lane would shift into the single lane that would lead towards developing choke-points. He also quoted Chowk Yateem Khana, Thokar Niaz Beg, Shahkam Chowk, Mughalpura Chowk, Nishter Colony Signal on Ferozpur Road as few other examples of poor road engineering.

He continued that service road at few important arteries was also missing that contributed to woes of commuters residing in nearby housing areas but also contributed to a traffic mess. An officer of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) said that not all the roads fell under the purview of the department like Multan Road, the road in front of Farakhabad or Ring Road etc so it is not wise to account LDA accountable for it. Regarding Jail Road Underpasses, he said that it was the first-ever underpass and constructed in the early 90s.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2019.