Eid preparations: Leaving for home, but not before the final hiccup

Traffic jams, increased fares make travelling expensive and uncomfortable.

ISLAMABAD:

Overloaded buses, shortage of mini-vans and long queues of vehicles stuck in traffic jams — all these have been a common sight in the twin cities in the last couple of days. As more people leave to celebrate Eidul Azha with their loved ones today, the situation is expected to remain the same.

Every year, thousands of people travel to central and southern Punjab, Peshawar and northern parts of the country to celebrate Eid with their families. While most of them prefer buses and mini-vans, the trend of travelling on private vehicles and cabs has seen a notable increase in the past few years.

As people started leaving on Wednesday evening, traffic in the twin cities increased manifold, while poor traffic management and  construction of roads in many areas further compounded issues. Those entering or travelling within the capital city were also left stranded for hours.

“It happens every year and the traffic police fail to plan better flow of traffic,” said Muhammad Saeed Khan, who was stuck on IJP road near I-8 in six queues of vehicles on Wednesday.

He said he was in a hurry to reach home, as he had to take his daughter to a hospital. He was furious at the traffic sergeant.

“What can we do? We are doing our best,” said the sergeant when asked why traffic signals were not working and why he was stopping traffic from one side for long.

He said it is usually more efficient to manage the junction manually during rush hours, but with more buses and vans coming from the nearby bus stand in Faizabad, traffic had increased all of a sudden.

The situation in Pirwadhai was even worse, where the largest bus stand made it impossible for locals to pass through. “I shouldn’t have come this way,” said Manzoor Ahmed. He was headed to G-7 from Peshawar Road.

A similar traffic jam was seen on the Kashmir Highway in Peshawar Mor. Though traffic was kept in order, it was massive and took more time for one side of traffic to clear before the other side could move on.

“The traffic will increase further on Friday,” said a traffic sergeant, adding that operations police were requested to move their checkpoints but they did not agree.

“If they can remove some concrete blocks to create more space for vehicles, there won’t be long queues and traffic will clear quickly,” he noted.

Traffic was not the only hurdle for commuters. With shortage of mini-vans and transporters raising fares all of a sudden, the journey seemed neither cheap nor comfortable. People had to wait for hours at bus stands before they could get a ride.

“People now prefer to go to Motorway Mor, as all buses and vans stop there to take passengers so there is no point in coming to bus stands,” said a driver of Bilal Travels. He said people going to nearby areas prefer mini-vans so they are high in demand but low in availability.

However, all that mattered for the people was to get home, whether they were seated inside the bus or on its roof. “We are going to hire a private cab to go to Peshawar,” said Aleem and Mehmood Khan, who waited for a van for two hours. They were happy to pay more than usual.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2012.