Signal-free commute: ‘Fawara Chowk underpass to open before Eid’

More than half the work on signal-free corridor completed

LAHORE: An underpass at Fawara Chowk part of the Jail Road-Gulberg signal-free corridor, will open for public before Eid.

Project contractor Shahid Saleem said this while talking to The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

He said more than half the work on the signal-free corridor had been completed.

Saleem said a second underpass would be constructed at Shadman Chowk on Jail Road. He said it would open for traffic after the Eid holidays. He said most of the construction work on the Gulberg-Jail-Road section had been completed. He said the Main Boulevard was being carpeted.

Saleem said work on the signal-free corridor had started on March 1 but was stopped by Lahore High Court on March 6. “Work resumed July 20 after the matter was settled in court,” he said.

“The new completion date has been set for November 20, we promised the chief minister to complete work by October 30,” he said.

Saleem said the government had launched construction in March to avoid monsoon rains. “Construction activity was delayed because the issue was taken to the court. Later, rain disrupted some work,” he said.

Saleem said once the corridor opened for traffic, commuters would not face hurdles on Jail Road and Main Boulevard.

“Most of the traffic bottlenecks were in front of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), Kinnaird College for Women University and Lahore College for Women University,” he said.

He said these would be removed after the road was remodelled. The government had already asked the KCWM and owners of commercial buildings to leave 20 feet space, for which a sum of Rs80.8 million had been earmarked.

He said the project cost was estimated at Rs1.26 billion, but had increased due to the delay. The corridor will eliminate seven traffic signals on Jail Road and Gulberg Main Boulevard.

The project includes remodelling and re-carpeting of Gulberg’s Main Boulevard, reconstruction of Jail Road from Sherpao Bridge to Qurtaba Chowk (Mozang Chungi).

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2015.