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Road to lahore marred by poor management, gridlocks

* Lack of coordination, inconsistent govt policy behind severe traffic jams in provincial capital

By Umair Aziz

LAHORE: Lack of coordination among government agencies and an inconsistent government policy on traffic management are responsible for severe traffic jams across the city, traffic police sources told Daily Times.

With a population of more than 10 million people, the demand for mobility has increased exponentially over the years in the provincial capital – leading to an unprecedented increase in the volume of traffic over the last decade. But policymakers have been unable to come up with a long-term strategy to respond to the situation – leaving motorists to suffer in lengthy traffic jams in almost all parts of Lahore.

The Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA) deputy director (electrical and mechanical) told Daily Times that vehicles in Lahore were thrice the number for which roads had been designed. He said roads had been designed to accommodate a maximum of 700,000 vehicles, but there were 2,300,000 vehicles running in Lahore. He said bank leases had enabled scores of people – who could not otherwise afford a car – to own cars, and cited this as the reason for the unprecedented increase in the number of vehicles in the city.

He said TEPA recently reduced the width of each lane from 12 feet to nine feet to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic. He said slow moving traffic, illegal encroachments and parking in service lanes were only a few factors contributing to the traffic rush. The uncouth behaviour of drivers can also be credited with a lot of the problems … in addition to the lack of a quality urban transport system,” he added.

According to TEPA, a site from where more than 300,000 vehicles pass between morning and evening is called a “chokepoint”. TEPA has already identified nine chokepoints in Lahore – Bhatta Chowk, Kalma Chowk, Defence Chowk, Samanabad, Azadi Chowk (Minar-e-Pakistan), Qurtaba Chowk (Mozang), Shah Alam Chowk, Bhaati Chowk and Ik-Moriya Chowk – which are subject to frequent jams throughout the day.

Traffic Engineering Director Malik Ahmed Nawaz said clogged traffic at any one of the chokepoints could affect the flow of traffic in the entire city: “a motorist who misses his flight because of a traffic jam at Bhatta Chowk should not get angry at the person in the next car, because it could possibly be the fault of a tractor driver violating some rule near Minar-e-Pakistan”.

The director suggested that traffic police, the Transport Department and TEPA be merged into a single body, which should be tasked with traffic signals, traffic lane marking, car parking and removing temporary encroachments – handing over control to the body of all magistrates working under the Parks and Horticulture Authority, the Lahore Development Authority and the city district government. He also proposed that the body be allocated funds for traffic management.

“Cars with only one passenger must be banned on roads, and traffic signboards should be installed to display lanes for buses, motorcycles and cars. The district government should complete all ongoing development work on roads within the timeframe for the smooth flow of traffic ... all fuel stations, electric poles and sui-gas installations should be located at a distance of at least five yards from main roads. Moreover, all hoardings and billboards obstructing the pedestrians should be removed.”

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