ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) Monday urged the civic agency to construct 21 more crossing bridges over the overburdened Islamabad Expressway to ensure the safety of pedestrian and motorists on the major thorough fare.
Talking to APP, ITP Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Farrukh Rashid calling upon the Capital Development Authority (CDA) asked it to build pedestrian bridges/underpasses on 27km artery, accommodating huge influx of population on both sides from Faisal Mosque to Rawat.
He also identified critical areas from Sohan to Kak Bridge where majority of the public mobility took place and a number of cases of accidents were consecutively reported.
Farrukh said only four overhead bridges on a major artery carrying burden of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were not enough to facilitate people moving in thousands per day.” “Twenty one more points for overhead bridges/ underpasses have been identified by the Islamabad Traffic Police to ensure safety of public lives and smooth flow of the traffic,” he insisted.
The SSP said the Express Way being an Inter-provincial artery required urgent attention as the population burden along its both sides was ever increasing, inviting multiple problems of traffic flow and public safety.
Meanwhile, the capital’s dwellers have also demanded to construct more pedestrian bridges on Kashmir Highway, Murree Road and Park road to ensure their safe and secure mobility.
Arslan Haider a resident of Iqbal Town said, there was too much distance between the already installed pedestrian bridges and people in a short cut move crossed the roads by foot and fell prey to accidents.
Abdul Samad, the resident of G-13 also complained the people residing alongside Kashmir Highway were making their passage by breaking the dividers at the various points of the road, threatening their lives and motorists as well.
He also demanded the maintenance of broken road dividers along Kashmir High way as it was inviting accidents.
When contacted the CDA’s spokesman said there were six bridges constructed for the pedestrian/bikers movement while four more would be erected under the Islamabad Expressway signal free corridor project likely to be completed this year.
On the Kashmir Highway, he said the civic agency had built a single crossing bridge near ShakarParian and the second one was constructed by the Metro Bus Service near weekly bazaar.
“Four more bridges will be constructed in a distance of 15 kilometer,” the spokesman added.