Widening project: MM Alam Road to be completed by end of January

Acquisition of additional setback space to be completed later.

LAHORE:

The MM Alam Road will be opened to traffic by the end of January, hopes the project’s deputy director, Mirza Inamul Haq. 

Carpeting of the road from Hussain Chowk to Mini Market has been almost completed.

Work on the 1.48-kilometer road began in November 2012. The project’s estimated cost is Rs441million. According to the rehabilitation plan, the road would be 80-foot wide with double carriageways of 22 feet each.

There will be an eight-foot parking space on each side as well as a 10-foot pedestrian pathway. The traffic lanes will be divided by curb stone. An earlier suggestion had been to place a soft median (cat-eyes). The plan was changed so that traffic jams aren’t caused by cars that shift from one side of the road to the other. LED lights will be installed along the road to save energy.

The original plan had proposed that the government obtain an additional 30-foot setback space on each side. But now that proposal is being put on hold temporarily.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Haq said the acquisition of the setback “remained subject to the cooperation of land owners”.
According to an estimate, more than 40 per cent of the properties on the road would have been affected. He said according to the new plan, widening of MM Alam Road was the first phase of the project while obtaining the additional space would be the second phase of it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2013.