Work on the crumbling MM Alam Road has been delayed yet again and will not begin until the end of this month, provided funds are available, said the Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority (TEPA) on Monday.
The remodelling of the road has been mooted for over a year and this is at least the third time that it has been delayed. The plan for the remodelling has also been altered. TEPA officials had previously said that the road would be converted into a one-way or pedestrian-only street. Last October, they announced it would be a two-way street with a median with five breaks for turns on the two-kilometre stretch of the road from Hussain Chowk to Main Boulevard.
TEPA Director for Traffic Engineering Israr Saeed said that the latest plan was to build a ‘soft’ median using cat’s eyes from Hussain Chowk to Main Boulevard. He said that the Rs290 million project had been approved by the Punjab government and would start by the end of January, provided the government allocated the money in the next few weeks.
He said that the rest of the plan for the road was unchanged: both sides of the road will be 24 metres wide, enough room for four lanes in total; and around 10 metres will be left on both sides to allow for parking.
MM Alam Road is home to some of the most popular and upscale eateries and shopping centres in Lahore and receives thousands of visitors every day. “It’s most busy between 2pm and 7pm,” said a traffic warden who works there.
“Cars can’t travel very fast because of the broken road so traffic builds up very quickly,” he said. “There is no clear separation either and vehicles often travel in the wrong lane to get past traffic or avoid potholes, which leads to jams.”
Khurram Khan, the owner of a Subway franchise on MM Alam Road, said that the traffic problem hurt his business. “The government has repeatedly pledged to initiate the project but they haven’t,” he said. “We had asked them to start the work in Ramazan as it is less busy than other months.” He said that businesses on the road did not want a massive revamp of the road, just carpeting to get traffic moving faster. Umer Habib, who owns a boutique in Gulberg, said that he avoided using MM Alam Road. “I mostly use Main Boulevard instead. It’s a longer route but it’s quicker. I’ve read several times that they are planning to repair the road but I’ve never seen them start,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2012.
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