Islamabad : It is almost five months now that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has sent in a request to the Planning Commission to grant permission for completing the remaining part of the 5-lane Signal Free Expressway from ‘Korang Nullah’ bridge onward to T-chowk on GT Road out of its own resources.
The Islamabad Expressway was to be turned into a 5-lane signal free corridor from Allama Iqbal Avenue (Margalla Road) to the T-Chowk on GT Road by December 2018. The project was completed up to Korang nullah bridge including four new flyovers at Garden Avenue, Sohan, Khanna and the Koral Chowk and was thrown open for all kind of traffic in all directions in February 2017.
Beyond Koral fly over, CDA also constructed the five-lane road up to the old two-lane Korang Bridge while the underpass was constructed by the management of private housing society, Gulberg Green.
But the work from Korang Nullah bridge up to T-Chowk on GT Road, which was supposed to be completed by December 2018, was abandoned for some inexplicable reasons despite the fact that all official approvals were in place.
When contacted the sources in the CDA said that when the summary was moved to the Planning Commission for allowing the Authority to start work on the remaining part of the project out of its own resources, a quick and positive response was expected.
This could not be confirmed but it is speculated that somebody somewhere in the Planning Commission is not ready to put his or her or their name(s) on the approval to CDA’s proposal because this being an inter-provincial road, is a PSDP (Public Sector Develop Programme) project and somebody in future could raise an objection.
However, some sources in the CDA said while talking to ‘The News’ that this project is now being turned into a public-private partnership project. If this happens then the CDA will be allowed to complete at least two important segments of the project, the PWD Underpass and the Korang Nullah bridge expansion.
While indecisiveness lingers on between the government and the CDA, people commuting on this particular highway continue to suffer unimaginable travelling trauma.
Over the last three years the volume of traffic has increased manifolds on this highway. On one hand the number of trailers, dumpers, trucks, buses and vans gone up and on the other the population in all those private housing societies on both sides of the Islamabad Highway has ballooned.
With hardly any public transport available, except one van route no. 136 plying from F-6 to Bahria Gate, for the residents of all these housing societies almost 100 per cent families own one or the other means of transportation, be it a bike or a motor car. Or, they hire one!
As a result thousands of jeeps, vans, cars and motorbikes join the traffic flow on the Islamabad Highway at PWD/Korang Town exits, chocking the two-lane road. The situation is particularly bad for the Northward traffic flow when people return home after a day’s work in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, especially from Korang Nullah bridge onwards.
The announcement by the CDA that it is going to complete this segment of the project from its own resources brought a lot of jubilations for the residents of all these private housing societies. The sources in the CDA said that if they get the nod from the government, they can complete the underpass at PWD within 8-month time while the widening of Korang Nullah bridge may take 18 to 20 months.
They said that if these two segments are completed and the existing road is repaired with shoulders further strengthened, the traffic flow will improve to a great extent.