LAHORE – As the Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA) and the Punjab Transport Department continue to sleep, the Garhi Shahu Chowk has turned into a traffic gridlock, a new addition to 20 bottlenecks identified in the Master Plan 2021, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The Garhi Shahu Chowk, located at the Allama Iqbal Road, witnesses awful traffic jams all day long. As it is the main intersection allowing vehicular flow towards the Railway Station (right side), Dharampura (left side) and the Queen Marry College (straight), long traffic queues are a routine matter now.
During rush hours, people have to wait for even some hours to pass through the chowk. Traffic wardens deployed on intersections are usually helpless to control the heavy influx of vehicles, which have no other substitute except the Garhi Shahu Chowk. A senior TEPA official told Pakistan Today that TEPA has framed a proposal to construct a flyover at the Garhi Shahu Chowk and a summary has been submitted to the Punjab government. According to the proposal, TEPA planned to build a one-kilometre long flyover starting from the Railways Cairns Hospital and ending over the Garhi Shahu Chowk near its first cut at the Allama Iqbal Road. “The flyover to be built on long pillars would be of a special kind for which no extra building would be demolished or extra land acquired,” he added.
The official said that the Punjab government is putting on hold the proposal and was not in a mood to approve the flyover. The government might have some other substitute to address traffic problems at the intersection, he added. A transport department official pointed out that another proposal to widen the Allama Iqbal Road and lessen the traffic nuisance at the Garhi Shahu Chowk was pending in the Punjab Assembly (PA) over the last two and half years. Ignoring the Garhi Shahu Chowk, which is a poor locality, the Punjab government has shifted its focus towards upscale areas where Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif has directed officials to build overhead bridges and underpasses as early as possible.
Spelling out reasons behind constant traffic jams at the Garhi Shahu Chowk, TEPA Director Israr Seed said that more than 0.12 million vehicles pass through the chowk daily and the Allama Iqbal Road, which is three-lane wide, is so squeezed that even a single vehicle has no way to ply on the road. He said that like other parts of the city, traffic at the Garhi Shahu Chowk was really chaotic, unruly and roads were often jam-packed. “Traffic is chaotic because drivers, whether of a bus, wagon, car, rickshaw or motorcycle, like driving in their own peculiar way. They are always in such a hurry that most of the time they even forget whether they intend to turn left or right,” he said.
Irregular parking was another reason, he said, that caused traffic gridlock. “Drivers carelessly park their vehicles on sides of congested roads without realising that their vehicle may end up blocking the entire traffic flow,” he added. Traffic planning expert Khushal Khan said that perhaps following no rule was the new rule on the road. “There is an issue of mismanagement, which is exacerbating the problem. For instance, there are a number of government bodies responsible for managing and planning traffic and transport issues of the city. Some of these departments include the Punjab Transport Department, Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority, City District Government Lahore, Urban Unit of Planning and Development Department, City Traffic Police etc and responsibilities of all these departments overlap. Additionally, they work in isolation and coordination is completely missing,” he added.
He said that the corporate sector had played a role in aggravating traffic mess by exploiting the existing gap created due to a wretched public transport system, by offering easy car leasing options to people. Now, anyone with a few months of job experience can lease out a car. Neither the corporate sector nor buyers think for a second about the environmental consequences of selling or buying cars. Of course, the former is aiming at more profits and later their own convenience, he added.
Other bottlenecks, he said included the Chowk Taxali, Chowk Chauburji, Chowk Istanbul, Chowk Davis Mall, Zafar Ali Road, Bhekewal Morr, Dubai Chowk, Kalma Chowk, Qainchi Amar Sidhu, Model Town Morr, Chowk Shalimar, Do Moria Pul, Moochi Gate, Minar-e-Pakistan (Azadi Chowk), Scheme Morr, Qurtaba Chowk, Canal Bridge on Jail Road, Lakshami Chowk and Regal Chowk.
