Signal-free corridor: Monitoring of traffic flow delays completion of work

Contractor says Shadman Chowk underpass will be opened for traffic this week

LAHORE: The signal-free corridor between Qurtaba Chowk on Jail Road and Liberty Roundabout on Gulberg’s Main Boulevard will not be completed by the November 20 deadline as government agencies are still monitoring traffic flows along the corridor and have yet to give a go-ahead to the contractor to finish work at some intersections, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Meanwhile, the underpass at Fowara Chowk has been opened for traffic. The underpass at Shadman Chowk will be opened for traffic this week, Habib Construction Services (HCS) Chief Executive Officer Shahid Saleem said on Sunday.



He said civil works at both underpasses and most U-turns along the corridor had been completed. He said they had yet to install kerbstones at the projected u-turn next to the Liberty Roundabout and some points on Jail Road because officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA) were still monitoring traffic at these points.

He said the finishing layer on the road would be added and kerbstones installed at the remaining points once the monitoring phase was over. He said they had trimmed the Liberty Roundabout and widened the road around it. “This will help maintain smooth flow of traffic on the road in future,” he said.

Besides the monitoring of traffic flow along the corridor, Saleem said the delay in completion of work was also owed to the addition of a flyover in front of Siddiq Trade Centre at Fowara Chowk. He said the flyover was not part of the original design. He said construction was underway at the flyover.

The flyover was added to the project to facilitate traffic flow towards Jail Road from the Lahore Cantonment. Traffic on the route is expected to increase after addition of underpasses at Tufail Road, Aziz Bhatti Road and Abid Majid Road intersections.

The signal-free corridor will extend over 7.6 kilometres. It will feature two underpasses – at Shadman Chowk and Fowara Chowk – and remove the need for seven traffic signals from the route.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2015.