It may be four years late, but the city police finally realised their mistake.
Why they were using more expensive but practically useless concrete slabs as roadblocks when cheaper variants were available has long been debated.
After all, many roads with such barricades are only partially blocked.
Last week, it appeared the cops finally got the point after losing one of their own in a road accident at one of the checkpoints. Constable Nazeer Ahmed, a 25 year veteran of the Islamabad Police, died last Monday after a speeding pickup truck hit him and ran into concrete block, pinning him in between.
Other police officials have suffered serious injuries after being hit by vehicles that failed to stop or tried to avoid the blocks.
At a major entry checkpoint on the four-lane Jinnah Avenue near Saudi-Pak Tower, more than a dozen concrete blocks were replaced with lighter, brightly-coloured plastic ones.
“This is a model checkpoint and the idea is to replicate them at other pickets,” City Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) DSP Naeem Iqbal told The Express Tribune.
The new portable barricade blocks are also more manageable. They are lightweight and do not need a forklift to move them around. Additionally, they take up less space and their light-reflecting colour is visible from a distance, alerting drivers to reduce speed well in time to avoid a collision.
For the police department, the plastic barricades are also much more cost-effective. “A single plastic barricade costs only Rs1,000 or so, whereas concrete blocks cost over Rs12,000,” said DSP Iqbal, adding that the new barricades were specially designed and manufactured using specifications provided by the police.
“It used to be a hassle to move a concrete block to readjust the settings at the checkpoint. We had to wait for a forklift to arrive, but now it’s easy and quick,” said a police official who requested not to be named. He added that in the past, the task was particularly compounded when they had to clear the road for VVIP movement.
The new orange barricades displaying “Switch Off Lights” warnings were also welcomed by commuters. “It is good to make them less unsightly if you are not going to remove them completely. But still, to me, the presence of this checkpoint here makes no sense,” said Saad Ahmed who was stopped by the policeman for documents checking. His vehicle bore a Lahore city registration number.
Another driver who did not give his name said the new blocks would be visible from distance and in case “somebody fails to stop his vehicle, it would not be badly damaged”. He said the concrete blocks at other checkpoints in the city are still a “big threat” to vehicle safety.
“Frankly speaking, they are not needed in the first place,” said the man driving a four-wheeler.
The man behind the idea is the same person who was credited for turning the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) into a model force in 2007: Headquarters Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Sultan Azam Temuri. He is currently deputed at the Kohsar Police Station, in whose jurisdiction the model checkpoint is located.
The police officials standing guard at other pickets hoped they too would get the new plastic blocks soon.
“You only need concrete barricades at places where you want to make entry for vehicles difficult or need to completely block it,” said a policeman at the Faizabad checkpoint.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2012.
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