Five years on, Peshawar’s traffic plan yet to go into effect
CM directs to recruit more traffic cops to implement the plan
PHOTO: EXPRESS
PESHAWAR:
Commuting in the provincial capital has long been nothing but a biblical trial. If one does manage to navigate the upended roads owing to the construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, they are likely to be stuck in the traffic jams caused by parking in front of markets or the check posts.
But it has now emerged that partial blame for the poor traffic management falls on the provincial government which has failed to implement a new traffic plan for the past five years, even though there were court orders to do so.
The plan had been developed long before the BRT project was conceived and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, led by the then Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister Pervez Khattak, was in power.
It was formed by a committee in 2014 which had been constituted by Khattak to solve the traffic problems of the city. That committee was headed by the now K-P Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai.
The resultant short-term traffic plan was presented to Khattak, who directed to sort traffic issues as per the plan.
It was designed to keep traffic in the provincial capital flowing, even though the roads were punctuated by a large number of check posts, particularly in the cantonment areas and near key installations such as the provincial assembly, the chief minister and the governor houses.
The plan also aimed to resolve the poor parking problems of the provincial capital by making traffic in the walled city by closing the road from Qissakhwani to Yadgar Chowk of the walled city for traffic and making the area one-way. Moreover, it would establish parking areas in major markets.
But the plan could never be implemented despite orders from the chief minister, a source in the K-P transport department told The Express Tribune.
The official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that plan fell prey to changing circumstances in the province.
“As the traffic management plan was announced, the municipal system was handed over to the district government,” the official said, adding that despite directives from the former chief minister, the plan remains mothballed.
In the meantime, cases in the Peshawar High Court reviewed the traffic situation in the city owing to barricaded streets, excessive check posts and then the construction of the BRT, in separate cases. The court sought a new traffic management plan from the city’s administrators and the traffic police apart from directing to reduce the number of check posts and to open several key doors.
With the BRT project still incomplete, posing more problems for commuters than solving them, incumbent Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also directed the city’s deputy commissioner and the traffic police apparatus to implement the traffic management plan. But the government has yet to follow through with those directions as well, sources added.
One of the reasons tipped for the government’s inability to implement the plan was the fact that the city had too few traffic cops.
In view of this, CM Mahmood has now directed to address this basic issue by authorising the recruitment of additional traffic cops for the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2019.
Commuting in the provincial capital has long been nothing but a biblical trial. If one does manage to navigate the upended roads owing to the construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, they are likely to be stuck in the traffic jams caused by parking in front of markets or the check posts.
But it has now emerged that partial blame for the poor traffic management falls on the provincial government which has failed to implement a new traffic plan for the past five years, even though there were court orders to do so.
The plan had been developed long before the BRT project was conceived and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, led by the then Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister Pervez Khattak, was in power.
It was formed by a committee in 2014 which had been constituted by Khattak to solve the traffic problems of the city. That committee was headed by the now K-P Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai.
The resultant short-term traffic plan was presented to Khattak, who directed to sort traffic issues as per the plan.
It was designed to keep traffic in the provincial capital flowing, even though the roads were punctuated by a large number of check posts, particularly in the cantonment areas and near key installations such as the provincial assembly, the chief minister and the governor houses.
The plan also aimed to resolve the poor parking problems of the provincial capital by making traffic in the walled city by closing the road from Qissakhwani to Yadgar Chowk of the walled city for traffic and making the area one-way. Moreover, it would establish parking areas in major markets.
But the plan could never be implemented despite orders from the chief minister, a source in the K-P transport department told The Express Tribune.
The official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that plan fell prey to changing circumstances in the province.
“As the traffic management plan was announced, the municipal system was handed over to the district government,” the official said, adding that despite directives from the former chief minister, the plan remains mothballed.
In the meantime, cases in the Peshawar High Court reviewed the traffic situation in the city owing to barricaded streets, excessive check posts and then the construction of the BRT, in separate cases. The court sought a new traffic management plan from the city’s administrators and the traffic police apart from directing to reduce the number of check posts and to open several key doors.
With the BRT project still incomplete, posing more problems for commuters than solving them, incumbent Chief Minister Mahmood Khan also directed the city’s deputy commissioner and the traffic police apparatus to implement the traffic management plan. But the government has yet to follow through with those directions as well, sources added.
One of the reasons tipped for the government’s inability to implement the plan was the fact that the city had too few traffic cops.
In view of this, CM Mahmood has now directed to address this basic issue by authorising the recruitment of additional traffic cops for the city.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 2nd, 2019.