Most of the residents living in the Islamabad Expressway neighborhood seem to have no interest in using the overhead bridges built on various points to facilitate them. Despite warnings by the police and traffic instructions, pedestrian are generally reluctant to use the nearby overhead bridges like the old guy saying: “I’m in a hurry, I don’t care. I have to reach office.” An official of Islamabad Traffic Police said that they are doing their best to educate the road users and different sign boards have been installed to guide the road users. “I agree that most of the pedestrians prefer short-cut, avoid use of these overhead bridges and face road accidents”, he said.
Several fatal and non-fatal road accidents have occurred on the Islamabad Expressway due to the negligence of pedestrians who jump at the road. The official said that police would continue efforts to educate road users. He requested the people to use overhead bridges as they were erected for their safety. The Expressway is one of the busiest roads of the city as most of the traffic coming from Lahore uses it to enter Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Muhammad Afzal, a car owner talking to this agency said the government has spent millions of rupees to facilitate people living across the Expressway for their safety, but most of the pedestrians are not using this facility, he regretted.
Muhammad Shafi a public transport driver of route 21, said mostly people do not use the bridge for crossing the road and disturb the flow of traffic.
Irshad Hussain, a government employee said the he always use overhead bridges as these have been installed to facilitate the public.
Talking to this news agency, a spokesman of Capital Development Authority (CDA) said a proposal was being considered to construct a six-foot high safety wall along the Islamabad Expressway to discourage the pedestrians from crossing the road other than designated places but due to financial crunch the plan had been dropped.
To a question he said overhead bridges will be installed at Zero Point Interchange for which a contract has been awarded to Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) for construction of the bridges. The HMC would install the bridges within six months, he added.
