- IJP Road with its countless potholes and ruts is endangering lives of commuters
Despite directions from Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Maroof Afzal, the work on service roads of Sector E-11 has been stalled for many weeks.
The chairman directed the dualisation of service roads east and west back in March. A total of Rs 240 million were approved for the dualisation purpose. For another carriageway from Khyaban-e-Iqbal to the roundabout service road (west) of Sector G-10, Rs 320 million was earmarked.
Work on the project started in late May and for first couple of weeks the pace of work was fast. At present, the work has been stalled and the commuters now have to travel on a road that is more dilapidated than before as the construction machinery used it along the general traffic and ruined it even further. The whole Sector E-11 and D-12 use a single road for their entry and exit. Traffic jams have become a routine matter in peak hours, especially during school timings.
Earlier this year, a billion rupee was earmarked for the rehabilitation and re-carpeting of Islamabad’s roads, big and small included. Initially, road construction machinery was seen in various sectors of capital and roads of main sectors were re-carpeted within a span of few days.
One of the most vital and most traffic heavy route in twin cities with approximately 0.2 million vehicles using it every day, IJP road has long been denied rehabilitation work. The road is on the verge of complete collapse as trucks, loaders and heavy traffic of all kinds use the road. Many deadly accidents have happened due to potholes.
“Now the Metropolitan Corporation and mayor will be responsible for the rehabilitation of IJP Road. He recently inaugurated the project and hopefully the things will improve,” said an Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation official.
“There are vast encroachments on both sides of the IJP Road, backed by influential people. The original plan was to expand as well as rehabilitate the IJP Road, now it will be re-carpeted like other roads. The road will witness traffic congestion and jams just like before as only the quality of the existing road will be improved. The need of the hour is also to widen it and vacate the adjacent land from encroachments and illegal structures,” said Rana Sarmad, engineer and resident of Satellite Town, Rawalpindi.