Roads shrinking as encroachers rule the roost in Gujranwala

GUJRANWALA – Encroachments have become the biggest problem of this thickly populated city of nearly two million people, but neither political nor administrative will is found to cope with this challenge. The interior city has been a no-go area for decades not because of its narrow streets or roads, but mainly due to the encroachments.
GT Road, the markets of planned localities of Model Town, Satellite Town, People’s Colony and other commercial areas are under strict control of the encroachers who have captured 10 to 20 feet of roadside areas, green belts or fronts of their properties. Only owing to the failure of the TMA’s staff concerned to remove encroachments at Sialkot Road, especially boundary wall of the central jail, forced Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to start construction of the road from Nandipur.
The three-km portion of GT Road from the General Bus Stand to Sheikhupura Link Road can’t be covered in less than half an hour throughout the day only because of the encroachments. No administrative measures have so far been successful to remove the encroachments from this specified area as encroachers or land mafia are perhaps above the law or always succeed in foiling every move against encroachments by using their contacts with political and administrative authorities.
That’s why service road project around the GT Road towards southern side could not be materialised after more than a decade efforts. Circular Road and the bazaars of the interior city need a major operation to restore them to their original shapes.
Satellite Town, of course, has become the largest trade centre of the city these days but its parking problems mar its importance, mainly due to encroachments. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently laid the foundation-stone of Gondlanwala Road costing Rs 320 million, but encroachments at this important road could not be removed.
Though the Gujranwala City District Government has decided to shift these merchants outside the city area, no practical steps have been taken. Only former DCO Dr Ijaz Munir showed some courage and removed encroachments at Garjakh Road. Gujranwala Corps Commander Lt-Gen Raheel Sharif, as in-charge of the monitoring team during the military regime a decade ago, launched a campaign against encroachments, but that incomplete agenda still requires completion.
Though Commissioner Saeed Iqbal Wahla, DCO Nabil Awan, having the support of the members of the local legislators, are claiming the removal these hurdles but, it is not true. The officers and staff of all the four town administrations in the city have been extracting huge money as their regular source of income from the encroachers.
No administrative step has stopped this corruption and it’s the real problematic point. The land managers, building branches and other staff concerned have their bungalows in the posh areas of the city with the bribes extracted from the encroachers. The administration does know the situation, but is doing nothing.