Traffic was driving them crazy, until this was built

Karachi’s residents tend to be divided on the benefits of flyovers but ambulance drivers have welcomed Jinnah...

KARACHI: Karachi’s residents tend to be divided on the benefits of flyovers, but ambulance drivers who need to reach a strip with four major hospitals have welcomed the latest addition - Jinnah flyover.

“Previously, I could never take the Saddar route,” said Shabbir Mughal, a Chippa ambulance driver.  “With the new bridge, I was sure that if I avoided the busier lanes and got to Lucky Star from Tower, I could get on to the flyover and make it to the hospital within time.” He said that he was recently able to bring injured men from Lyari to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in less time because of the new flyover.

Four hospitals, JPMC, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, the Kidney Centre and the National Institute of Child Health are all located on the narrow Rafiqi HJ Road that connects to Shahrae Faisal at the Regent plaza hotel intersection. The problem was that Sharae Faisal is the city’s main artery and approaches to the hospitals are too narrow.

Fareed, who has been driving ambulances for the past seven years, said that the construction of the flyover saved him almost 15 minutes as he made his way to the emergency ward. While his previous route was the signal-free corridor, Fareed said that he used to get stuck in traffic for a long time as the same route was used by all emergency services simply because it was connected to most of the city’s largest government hospitals. With the construction of the new flyover, people now have an alternative that can get them to their destination faster, he added.

It is common practice to send patients from Saddar, Lyari or Old Karachi to Civil hospital first and secondly to JPMC, explained Atta Fareed, an Edhi ambulance driver. As the route between the two hospitals was not straight, precious time was wasted, said Fareed, who added that the flyover on Sharae Faisal cuts through most of the traffic. However, the Jinnah flyover has been unable to resolve all traffic-related problems for these drivers as a large number of buses, coaches and mini-vans continue to get in their way. They, too, make their way towards a number of these hospitals, which not only provide medical services to patients, but are campuses to hundreds of students.

Bus drivers are a hindrance as they stop in the middle of the road whenever a passenger needs to get off, said Moin Babar, another ambulance driver. “We end up wasting so much time honking at these drivers, just so that they can make way for us to get to the hospital. On many occasions, the hospital is just yards away but we cannot move before a bus drops or picks up its passenger,” he complained.

Moreover, cars and vendors parked on the sides of the road, as well as doctors, students and patients who make their way from one department to another on foot, add to the confusion, Fareed said.

Shehnaz, who was waiting for the bus outside the hospital, told The Express Tribune that her six-year-old was sick and she would not wait at a bus-stop as it meant walking all the way with her five children, all below the age of 13. Honking ambulances were unable to budge this mother as she adamantly waited for a vehicle that would transport her brood from the hospital to her house.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2010.