issued notices to some of the industrial units and threatened to seal them if they fail to pay the commercialisation charges. Some of them have already been sealed. This is nothing short of a brazen act of harassment of the business community by a civic organisation of the Punjab government.
And what facilities do the businesses on Multan Road get in return? The motorway police have declared four kilometres from Thokar Niaz Beg to Shahpur as a ‘red zone’. No passenger bus is allowed to stop there. However, the rule is often violated creating a traffic mess. Also on the red zone is located an impressive office of the National Highway Authority adjacent to the motorway overhead bridge.
Some years ago, the Punjab government decided to establish a general bus stand opposite the NHA office. The bus stand was to have an underpass under the road for bus movement. Nespak had even designed the layout plan but it was shelved for some reason. Now the long-body buses have to take U-turns to enter and exit the bus stand, thus creating untold miseries for the commuters and the motorists. The traffic chaos near the NHA office and harried passengers crossing the main road to board buses at the bus stand are a daily occurrence.
While thousands of commuters suffer daily due to the traffic snarl-up on the busy Multan Road, a new 5-km multi-lane road, leading from the motorway overhead bridge to Raiwind Road is under construction at a projected cost of Rs2.39 billion. It will facilitate VVIP movement from Raiwind to the motorway, bypassing the traffic bedlam at Thokar Niaz Beg and Multan Road.
However, does the CM Punjab, who belongs to the business community, know how a civic organisation – the LDA – is tormenting business people? What’s the point in setting up new industrial zones when the entrepreneurs in the old ones are forced to quit because of the extortionist methods of a civic body.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore. Email: pinecitygmail.com