Saddar Bazaar overhaul hits roadblocks

Traders lament non-construction of two parking plazas, traffic mismanagement

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RAWALPINDI:

Underground cabling and beautification in Saddar's commercial bazaar, the only mega project initiated by the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) in 2024 remained a bone of contention between the Cantonment administration and the business community.

The Rs2 billion project remained a source of controversy primarily because of the non-construction of two parking plazas and traffic mismanagement.

The business community has announced a sit-in outside the RCB office on January 6, a mass protest and a two-hour shutter-down strike.

The Saddar's commercial area, comprising Bank Road, Hyder Road, Kashmir Road, Adamji Road, King Road and Mall Road, has become a full walking street of Bank Road, with limited parking sites after Potohar One and Potohar Two.

By diverting traffic to other roads, the problem of parking has complexed. Considering this proposal, due to some reasons, two multi-storied parking plazas cannot be constructed in Saddar. Additionally, no progress has been made in establishing a parking area at the state-owned GTS bus terminal on Adamjee Road so the rule of time-bound parking is being applied in the Pothohar One and Pothohar Two parking areas. The parking fee is increased by Rs50 every one hour.

While parking on other roads has increased to such an extent that the traffic crisis has intensified on these roads as well.

The business community complains that the business activities on Bank Road, which owns the largest business centre of Saddar's commercial area, are badly affected. It's becoming difficult for the shopkeepers to pay the electricity bills and continue their businesses in this situation, they add.

Zafar Qadri, the general secretary of Anjuman Tajran Rawalpindi Cantt, terms the underground cabling and beautification project as an excellent project, but says due to inadequate parking system, business activities have been badly affected.

"Buyers have turned to the commercial market and Islamabad. Businessmen are left with no other option but to close their shops and sack employees. How will the traders manage the salaries of employees, rents of the shops and electricity bills when there is no customer," he questioned. Qadri said that the shopkeepers would stage a sit-in outside the RCB office on January 6.

RCB spokesman Assistant Secretary Rashid Saqib says efforts are in place to broaden the parking capacity in the commercial area in Saddar. Potohar One parking which is connected to Hyder Road Bank Road also has ample parking capacity while more parking capacity is being arranged, he adds.

As far as the construction of parking plazas is concerned, the Board does not have the resources for this.