Smog causing traffic congestion points identified

LAHORE:The district administration has identified 10 major traffic bottleneck points and 55 traffic points in the City that caused smog.

This was revealed in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Commissioner Zaid bin Maqsood here on Thursday. The meeting was held to finalise the strategy to combat ‘obstruction in traffic’, which was one of the main causes of smog. Commissioner said the CM’s roadmap team along with the Punjab Safe City Authority has identified 10 major traffic bottleneck points in central City and a total of 55 traffic points that cause smog. He said there were several causes of smog and traffic obstruction is one of the most important reasons. He said on the direction of the chief minister, comprehensive planning is being done to combat all the factors of smog. The commissioner directed for starting work on 10 points for anti-smog activities. More updated data will lead to smarter working, he added. More work should be done on collecting data on two peak days and a week day for air quality analysis, he said. He was informed that due to illegal and wrong parking and encroachments, the central city was engulfed in smog due to obstruction of traffic flow. Taking anti-smog measures was the first priority of the Punjab government, he said, adding a strategy will be adopted in every aspect and department, and under the pre-smog plan, the departments will take steps for anti-smog. The commissioner said substandard petrol and fuel were also one of the major causes of smog. The Department of Industries and ACs must take action against these substandard fuel and petrol. The commissioner said actions must be taken at the tehsil level against smoky vehicles, motorcycles and rickshaws. He said that actions must also be taken against brick kilns, construction sites and trolleys plying on city roads without covers.