Traders oppose ‘lengthy’ walking street

Row weight behind transformative underground cabling initiative

RAWALPINDI:

The representatives of the Anjuman-e-Tajiran Rawalpindi Cantonment have fully backed the Saddar Bazaar underground cabling project but opposed the idea of constructing a kilometer-long walking street from the Bank Road to the Metrobus Station. They have also stressed the need to complete the civil work on the underground cabling project speedily.

The views were presented at a joint review meeting of the Cantonment Board, the IESCO, the Station Commander, the Cantonment Executive Officer, and traders’ representatives in the office of the Director-General of the MLC.

The traders said they would announce the future action plan by calling a consultative meeting of trade bodies across the Cantonment regarding the walking street.

The meeting of the steering committee on the Saddar Bazaar’s beautification, underground cabling, and 1.1km long walking street project was held under the chair of Additional Director General MLC Khursheed Ali Khan. The meeting was attended by Station Commander Brigadier, Ahmed Nawaz, Cantonment Executive Officer, Syed Ali Irfan Rizvi, Axion IESCO, Chief Engineer Cantonment Board Sheikh Abdul Raheem, the Additional CEO, Anjuman-e-Tajiran Cantonment president Sheikh Hafeez, and others.

The meeting was informed that along with the civil works, underground cabling work is going on by the IESCO. The representatives of the business community expressed their reservations about the quality and speed of work of the contractor. The contractor was advised to complete the task within the stipulated time of nine months.

The meeting was further informed that the work on the beautification of all bazaars in Saddar is also continuing under which signboards of all shops would be of equal size and one design. Shop fronts will be painted, all footpaths will be given a new look, and sanitation will be improved.

The traders strongly opposed the proposal of constructing the walking street between the 1.1km stretch of the Metrobus station and the end of Bank Road, saying it would affect the business activities on Bank Road. They said that a consultative meeting of all business associations would be called on Friday to devise a future line of action.