The encroached roads include the ‘model road’ – Madare Millat Road – Sabzazar Main Road and Data Nagar Misri Shah.
The mechanics, hawkers and offices of several goods transport companies have simply taken over causing great problems for the motorists and the residents.
The city district government has also failed to place garbage drums on any of the roads. This has led to the residents throwing garbage on the roads. Eventually the solid waste gets into and chokes the drains.
Around eight months ago, the Lahore Commissioner, the City District Government of Lahore (CDGL) and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) had declared the Madare Millat Road a model road, implying that it would be one of the city’s best maintained roads. However, soon after its completion it ‘fell a victim’ to the mechanics and transporters. The mechanics repair heavy trucks and vehicles by parking them in the middle of the road. Often, mobil oil and diesel fuel also leak from the vehicle being repaired on to the road. Road engineers say the mobil oil and diesel spill destroy roads within days. “The chemicals used in petroleum products destroy the roads completely,” said Moeen Ahmed.
The service lanes have also been completely encroached upon by transporters, who park their trucks in the lanes. A number of goods transport companies load their trucks while parked on these roads.
The residents of these areas say that they have to face a number of problems as a result. “I have asked the authorities concerned many times to do something about these encroachers but they don’t take the complaints seriously,” said Tariq Sian, a resident of Madare Millat Road. He added that the residents had hoped for a cleaner environment while the road was being constructed “but there has been no change”.
Another resident, Sajid Irshad, said that the construction of roads, instead of facilitating the locals, had resulted in new problems. “When the road hadn’t been constructed, the mechanics used to park vehicles on the other side. Now they park it on the road,” said Irshad adding that the government should take action against the transporters and mechanics. “They should conduct their business within premises of their workshops and not use public property,” said Khurram Sheikh.
Some wholesale fruit sellers have also established their kiosks at the roadside, hindering the smooth flow of traffic. The citizens also criticised the CDGL for not placing garbage drums along these roads. There is no garbage skip on the six-kilometre Madare Millat Road and the 3.5-kilometre Sabzazar Road. Residents complained that they had no option but to throw garbage on the roads. This leads to the sewerage system being choked. “We also sometimes set the garbage on fire, which also pollutes the environment. But what choice do we have? There is no other disposal system; the CDGL just does not lift the garbage,” said Khlaid Mehmood a resident of Sabzazar.
Commissioner Khusro Bakhtiar was not available for comments.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2010.
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