The Canal bank road is the main entrance of the Lahore city from M-2 and Multan road.
According to a survey, 200,000 vehicles pass through on daily basis and massive traffic jams are witnessed due to the narrow road. Students, working class and even the ambulances carrying patients get stuck in heavy traffic.
The government has planned several times to reconstruct and widen this road but an unknown hurdle comes every time, this time in the shape of NGO named Lahore Bachaao Tehreek (Save Lahore) which has filed a petition in Supreme court against the Punjab government in order to prevent it from building the road and cutting the trees from the road side. It is estimated that delay of the plan is increasing the budget by millions of rupees every year.
Other than this, due to heavy traffic and congested road, extra fuel worth Rs. 2 billion is consumed every year on this road causing economic as well as environmental problems.
Higher authorities including the Supreme Court need to keep this fact in mind that the widening of this road will cause much less environmental issues than it is now. A plan can be devised to counter every one’s objections but the reconstruction of the road is the real need of the hour.
MARIAM RIAZ
Lahore
