LAHORE: Traffic in the provincial capital remained congested on Sunday due to the poor management of parking facilities at the ongoing Coke food festival being held at Royal Palm Country Golf Club.
Commuters on the Canal Road faced a terrible traffic block between Mall Road underpass and Dharampura underpass, while roads leading to several other areas, including the railway station, Lakshmi Chowk, Davis Road, Abbott Road and McLeod Road, were clogged.
Moreover, the recently completed Chubacha underpass was also closed by authorities for unknown reasons.
Several motorists tried to use alternate roads and streets of residential areas but they too got trapped in the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Ambulances faced difficulties carrying patients to hospitals, while several minor clashes erupted between motorists stuck in the traffic. The authorities failed to provide citizens with alternative traffic routes and traffic wardens seemed unable to handle the situation.
A Daroghawala resident Hammad said that it took him over two hours to reach the Press Club. “I have to travel along the Orange Line Metro Train project to reach my workplace, which already takes a lot of time because of the ongoing construction project. My thirty-minute long journey was extended manifold as I had to travel through the severe traffic clog of today,” Hammad said.
Thousands of citizens suffered a similar situation on Saturday evening when ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam visited the NA-120 constituency. Maryam, who was accompanied by other party workers, arrived in a VIP protocol which made the situation unbearable for commuters.
Meanwhile, no traffic police officials were available for a comment.