As major roads of Lahore are being renovated, commuters have claimed that it is getting exceedingly difficult to carry out everyday chores since all renovations have been started at the same time and their patience was being tested. “It is for the betterment of the city but it could be planned as well,” said Naseem, a mother who was on her way to pick her children from school. She said that she lived in Model Town Extension and her children studied in a school located on Ferozpur Road. “I get out of one construction zone and find myself in another traffic knot due to the repairs. Normally this is a 15 minutes drive and now it’s a nuisance,” she said.
Currently there are more than 5 major road repairing projects that are underway in various parts of the city. These roads have been depleted due to excessive usage. Now that these roads have been blocked or partially blocked, excessive traffic load has been shifted to other roads creating bottlenecks in various parts of the city. Model Town Link Road, Queens Road, Shalimar Link Road, Abul Hassan Isfahani Road and Main Naulakha Road leading towards 1 Moriya Pull are currently under repair. In addition the Muslim Town fly over is still under construction which is adding in to the problem of the commuters while the Canal Bank Road project is still in its finishing stages where the road has been partially blocked.
Locals claim that the government should have planned the repair works and all roads should not have been blocked all at once.
“It seems that the concerned departments never plan the construction, I think they should sit down with the Traffic Department and jot down important traffic zones and should plan the renovation accordingly,” said Mir Usman a father of one. He said that the patience of the commuters was tested everyday which was not fair.
Asfand a college going boy said the important road under renovation should be completed at night. “The canal bank road project which was initiated in that start of last year was completed over night which did not create any hurdles for the commuters,” he said. He added that tall major road should be worked upon at night time which would help the traffic problems being faced by the city.