City uplift: Chandni Chowk Flyover opens to traffic

Punjab Chief Minister announces Rs1.5 million as prize for labourers.

RAWALPINDI:

The much awaited Chandni Chowk Flyover on Benazir Bhutto Road is finally open to traffic. Expected to drastically reduce traffic congestion on the city’s busiest avenue, the Rs 1.25 billion project was inaugurated by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in a ceremony held at the Arid Agriculture University on Saturday.

The chief minister praised all relevant departments for completing the project on time and announced Rs1.5 million as prize for all the labourers involved in the project. He said that to improve the traffic situation in Rawalpindi, different projects are underway on Churr Chowk and Golra Mor along the Peshawar Road, which will be completed shortly.

Project Director Rana Basharat said that roads under and on either side of the flyover will be completed within a month.

The 403 metre-long and 220.9 metre-wide flyover stretches from Benazir Bhutto Hospital to Sadiqabad on Benazir Bhutto Road (BB Road), which links Rawalpindi’s urban areas with the federal capital and therefore attracts significant traffic throughout the day. However, despite the claims of public officials highlighting the ease that the flyover will provide to the burgeoning traffic flow on the busy avenue, motorists and even some traffic wardens are sceptical of this claim.

One traffic warden, requesting anonymity, said that the Chandni Chowk Flyover will not be of much benefit unless a flyover is also constructed at the Sixth Road intersection, which precedes the Chandni Chowk flyover on route to Islamabad.

“The CM has promised a flyover there, if that happens things will improve, until then it will only help in reducing traffic congestion on the Chandni Chowk and Rawal Road crossing,” he said. The warden added that the traffic flow will only be transferred on other intersections along the highway, such as Naz Cinema, Waris Khan, Taili Mohalla and Committee Chowk.

The project has been completed by the National Logistic Cell (NLC) without the approval of NOC from the Civil Aviation Authority. An official said that the flyover had been constructed in violation of the CAA rules. “The airport is not very far from the sight of the bridge,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2012.