Islamabad : Travelling on the Islamabad Expressway – the jugular vein connecting Islamabad with Rawalpindi and the other parts of the country – has become a nightmare, especially at peak times, due to unnecessary check posts and willful lane violation by the heavy transport drivers in the absence of tight policing by the ITP personnel.
Soon after their launch with much fanfare in 2006, the meticulously dressed, sliver-tongued cops were seen manning the main roads and highways and busy intersections managing/regulating a never-ending stream of traffic.
Sitting alert behind the speed guns at important points, they would never let any speed merchant or a habitual red light jumper get him off the hook.
Majority of motorists also weaned them off their hard-to-die old habit of traveling without safety belt on, and the motorcyclists too started wearing helmets for fear of being ticketed. Crackdowns were also launched every now and again on overloading and use of high-pressure horns by the public bus transporters, truckers, and wagoners and these were steamrolled in the full media glare. The unruly public transport drivers also disciplined themselves to a great extent and not only completed routes, but also stopped picking and dropping passengers at unspecified spots.
It was because of a zero tolerance policy that traffic on the capital roads became smooth and orderly. As a result, recurring tailbacks came to an end and accidents and traffic violations, which were committed wholesale earlier, came down considerably.
However, this golden period bringing comfort to the public and a good name to the police department died out after some time giving truckers, wagoners, motorists and other road users a free rope to go their own way. The only job the ITP could be seen doing occasionally with enthusiasm is issuing challans [tickets] to truckers for overloading.
Today, majority of traffic filters [signals] are either out of order or they remain switched off giving rise to traffic snarl-ups. Absence of ITP personnel at important points on the 28-km expressway, especially at the bottlenecks ahead of the Airport Chowk, worsens the situation. Slow-moving overloaded trucks with big gunny bags/panniers full of fodder protruding loosely out onto the sides, dumper trucks, multi-wheel long trailers and public transport buses could be seen plying the expressway and are mainly responsible for jamming the traffic. Some of truckers prefer to habitually travel in the fast lane and honking and dippers falls flat on them.
This wanton disregard of uneducated, untrained and thick-skinned truck drivers for traffic laws and other road users’ safety is abetted by the ITP personnel’s absence.
The security check posts on both sides of the expressway a few hundred feet ahead of Faizabad Interchange have also been contributing immensely towards hindering the inbound and outbound traffic flow.
Every morning, excepting holidays, as thousands of people from different destinations head towards their offices in the federal capital, the bottlenecks and these security check posts cause gridlocks. As a result, motorists sit tense and taut behind the wheel waiting for the tailbacks to clear. Getting late to the offices also causes administrative problems. Practically, these check posts serve no purpose except slowing down an otherwise steady stream of traffic.
Background discussions with some ITP officials shows that the ITP are not only understaffed and heavily overburdened, but also lack trained personnel to ensure an uninterrupted flow of traffic on the Islamabad Expressway and other important highways and roads of the federal capital.
As per information, the current strength of the ITP is 550 which was 650 at the time of their launch on Jan 28, 2006. The daily flow of vehicles at that time was 35,000 to 40,000 which increased to 7,50,000 to 8,50,000 in 2019. The current flow of vehicles needs 2,200 to 2,300 trained personnel. With the current strength standing at 550, a traffic cop has to perform different duties for 16 hours.
As per discussion, twenty to twenty-five percent ITP personnel are engaged during VVIPs movement on a daily basis. The department also lacks funds to manage different expenses, as the money accrued from challans and licenses goes to the coffers of the chief commissioner’s office.
The ITP has just seven to eight working speed guns against the minimum requirement of 40 to 45.
It has also been learnt that qualified ITP personnel trained by the British police department have been sent to other departments on deputation and unqualified and untrained personnel from different departments have been transferred to the ITP as punishment.
It was a standard practice in the ITP that the personnel used to be educated about how to deal with the public and behave towards them but this practice has now been abandoned.
According to some police officials, summaries recommending certain measures for betterment of the ITP have been sent to the Ministry of Interior and the Prime Minister’s House time and again but no response has been received so far. Islamabad is referred to as Islamabad the beautiful, but recurring gridlocks are giving it an ugly look. The Prime Minister’s House [PMO] and the Ministry of Interior must pay their unreserved attention to making the traffic police an ideal well-equipped and trained police force.
The writer is a resident of Islamabad