The Capital Development Authority could not manage to repair since long demanded dilapidated Eastern Service Road, along Islamabad Expressway linking Allama Iqbal Town, Khanna, Ghouri Town and Koral localities.
Residents’ requests to demolish ever increasing encroachments on either side of the road could not also attract the authorities concerned.
The residents have also requested to widen the service road to lessen burden on the main expressway that remains clogged daily due to heavy traffic load.
“The service road not only accommodates residential area but also shares the burden of main highway and must be repaired soon to facilitate thousands of daily commuters,” remarked a resident Zeeshan to APP.
Mohsin Khan, a government servant complained that most of the milkmen have occupied the road sides illegally, to keep their buffalos. A number of marriage halls on roadside, was another hindrance in the smooth flow of traffic, he added.
Rashid Ali an engineer said the road was originally built to run light traffic with a speed of 50 km per hour but ever since heavy traffic was shifted the situation has worsened.
A traffic police official giving statistics said over 15,000 vehicles daily use this Eastern Road, which also links various divided parts of the Islamabad. Many accidents have already occurred due to extremely poor condition of the road’, he added.
Syed Wafa Ali, a university student of the area said work on CDA’s interchanges on Islamabad Expressway is expedited as it was causing problems for the students to reach their institutions in time.”You cannot calculate your time for your destination as highway sometimes remains blocked for hours”, he added.
A senior official of the engineering wing of the Civic Body said the commuters and area residents have to show patience for some more time as repair of Eastern Service Road from Sohan to Koral was part and parcel of the Islamabad Expressway’s expansion plan.
The work there, he said, is already in progress. He said the plan involves six interchanges – full cloverleaf interchanges at I-8, Khanna and Koral Chowk, a partial cloverleaf interchange and an intersection at G.T. Road and another intersection at Sohan as well as upgrading of the existing Faizabad interchange.
“The existing Faizabad interchange will be completely rehabilitated and additional loops and ramps will be added to it” he further added.
