As more than half of the roads in Garden Town have been dug up in order to install sewerage pipelines, the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and the town management seem to be procrastinating and at odds over various issues, Pakistan Today has learnt.
WASA claims that it paid Rs 35 million to the LDA to rebuild roads even before the project was initiated while the LDA denies it. On the other hand, the town management claims that it received only Rs 2.5 million to rebuild roads which remain shredded and unapproachable for residents. Residents have to go through a rigorous exercise to enter their own homes due to broken roads.
Main roads surrounding Babar Block, Shershah Block, Aebak Block, Ata Turk Block, Aurangzeb Block and Tariq Block have been in a poor condition for three months now. LDA claims that it was responsibility of the Gulberg TMO to rebuild the roads. “Its’ been more than two months now since WASA had installed new pipelines in this area but the roads have been left opened since then and no one seems to care”, shopkeeper Zaheer Alam at Tipu Block said.
“Coming back home from work is like finding your way through a maze”, banker Maaz Ahmed, a resident of Babar Block said. Maaz said that almost all roads in the society are dug up and the authorities seem to be doing nothing in this regard. Saima Malik, a mother of two, said that it was hard for her to clean the house, as dust keeps flying in from left, right and centre. She said that even approaching the house has become difficult. “It’s so complicated to explain the way to the house. Our guests often wander off somewhere else”, she lamented.
“Monsoons are round the corner and mud splattered everywhere in the society owing it to the dug up roads can make matters worse if it rains,” a house servant at Aurangzeb Block said. Garden Town was acquired by the LDA in the 1960s and is a densely-populated society today. With small markets, offices, schools, colleges and banks, Garden Town has a population of more than 0.25 million, which shows that the roads face heavy traffic.
