Metro bus bridge soaking motorcyclists

The water drips onto busy City roads sometimes till midday.

LAHORE:

An overhead bridge being used by the Lahore Metro Bus Service is leaking water from several joints onto busy City roads below.  

The leak is most bothersome early in the morning when Lahore Waste Management Company teams wash the 8.3km overhead road – from Muslim Town Bridge to Data Darbar.

However, the water continues to drip onto Ferozepur Road, Lower Mall and Data Darbar Road sometimes till midday.

A traffic warden deployed at Ferozepur Road told The Express Tribune that the motorcyclists were forced to take dangerous turns to avoid it. This, he said, could cause traffic accidents.

Majid Hameed, a resident of Rehmanpura, said there would more complaints in Ramazan. “People offer prayers more regularly and try to remain more clean in Ramazan… the water seeping from the bridge is dirty,” he said.

Hameed said the overhead road had cost billions of rupees to build and should’ve had “a better drainage system.”

Traffic Engineering Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) Chief Engineer Saeed Akhtar said the water was leaking from the joints that had been placed at every thirty metres at the road.

“There is no other drainage issue…we are looking to stop the leak,” he said.

He said the water was clean. “It is either rainwater or the water used by LWMCs cleaning staff,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th, 2013.