Canal Road Widening Project to get new lease of life?

The Punjab government is all set to revive the controversial Canal Road Widening Project, pending since 2007, by likely targeting three most congested points at the canal instead of widening the 14 kilometres stretch of road from the Dharampura Underpass to Thokar Niaz Beg as proposed in the initial plan and to put the project in action, Rs 10 million has been allocated in the provincial budget 2011-2012, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The allocation has been given to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to execute the project under the urban development programme. A senior LDA official told Pakistan Today that a committee, formed by the Supreme Court (SC), which took suo motu notice in 2009 on outburst of civil society and environmentalists, was about to complete the draft of recommendations featuring an amicable solution of the Canal Road Widening Project and would submit them to the court in a couple of days.
The committee headed by Dr Parvez Hassan, a renowned environmentalist, was formed in February with the task to have consent of the parties concerned, sort out an amicable solution to the issue of widening the Canal Road in backdrop of environmental threats, especially to trees, and submit a report after a month.
The committee consisting of known urban planners, conservationists and environmentalists including Babar Ali, Sartaj Aziz, Umera, Arif Hassan, Javed Jabbar, the Lahore commissioner and Abdi Sulehri conducted two or three public hearings involving LDA, Nespak, jurists, high-standard educational institutions and people belonging to various walks of life to prepare the recommendations, the official added. “The recommendations have rejected the basic plan bearing widening of 14 kilometres patch of Canal Road at a cost of Rs 3.15 billion from Dharampura to Thokar Niaz Baig and proposed remodeling of three gridlocks on the canal to ease the traffic congestion,” the official said.
The City District Government Lahore (CDGL) along with the Punjab government and the Traffic Engineering & Planning Agency (TEPA) planned to widen the Canal Road in 2007, as a solution for congestion due to the present and predicted mushroom growth of vehicles in Lahore. The project entails widening the present road by adding two lanes one for four wheel vehicles and one for two wheel traffic on either side of the road. Given the plan at least 21,000 trees had to be axed and devastate 60 acres of green belt along the canal under asphalt.
The Punjab government was all set to launch the project but the SC took suo motu notice and restrained the execution in 2009. Later, a public hearing of the Environment Impact Assessment was held, which termed the proposal for widening the canal a flawed solution for traffic problems on the canal road. Urban planners said that the road widening had historically failed as a solution for traffic bottlenecks. “The widened roads only attract more traffic and eventually end up being inadequate for the ever increasing traffic load. Road widening in settled urban areas comes at a high price in land acquisition and often needs unwelcome remodeling of the given spatial pattern, loss of heritage buildings or precious open areas in the city,” they said.
The project, planners said, would transfer the traffic congestion to all underpasses with the converging three lane traffic throughout the canal road. “The three major culprits blocking the flow of traffic on the canal are unauthorised vendors on the verges, lack of bus slips for public transport and animal carts. The canal traffic could be smoother by addressing the above-mentioned points,” urban planners said.
Environmentalist Rafay Alam said that the green cover with valuable old trees and string of orchards at the canal was a priceless asset and the trees along the canal provided a shelter to a variety of birds and small animals, which would vanish with the trees if the project started. “The canal provides much need green space to a range of communities along its length. Chopping of trees and further narrowing of green belts will make it another non-space in the city,” he added.
“The unchecked growth of commercial activity along the Canal Road and at junction arteries will continue to create bottlenecks. The traffic study does not provide any data on the origin and destination of trips and social profile of the canal using traffic. There is no criterion for determining that the present capacity of the road is only half the traffic load. The alternative route plans have not been sufficiently studied,” Alam said. According to the Master Plan 2020 document prepared by Nespak, Lahore has only 2,250 hectares of developed open spaces, 0.42 hectares per 1,000 people. Given the already low rate of open spaces for Lahoris, it is imperative that the existing greens should be conserved and developed, a horticulturalist said.