Remodelling of market in Johar Town: Unavailability of alternative parking area irks visitors

LAHORE: Ongoing construction work for the remodeling of the main commercial market in Johar Town has caused traffic jams besides producing fugitive dust, which was the main component of smog, causing serious inconvenience for the commuters.

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has started remodeling of G-1 Market, a commercial zone in Johar Town. It was situated on the road connecting Canal Bank Road with the Nazria-e-Pakistan Road. This road was an important one from where thousands of vehicles passed daily and buildings like Doctors’ Hospital, Expo Centre, and Emporium Mall and etc existed on this road.

LDA planned to remodel the parking outside the G-1 Commercial zone, which on both sides was always full of encroachments. Presently, the LDA has started undergrounding of the utility services and the entire parking area outside the G-1 commercial zone was dug up due to the visitors has no option to park their vehicles on the road.

“This has caused a traffic mess on the road,” said Ms Khurram, a woman visiting the market said while talking to The News. She said she came to the market for some shopping and remained stuck in the traffic mess for more than half an hour.

She said at least LDA should have provided an alternative parking before starting the remodeling. Hassan Ahmed, another visitor, said the city was already facing the issue of smog and the Punjab government has claimed that the fugitive dust was the main component of it. He said he used to travel on this road every day and he has not seen water sprinkling by the contractor of this project. Subhan Khan, a shopkeeper, said the remodeling work has disturbed the business activities in the market. This project has affected the business activities due to traffic rush and unavailability of parking.

Sheikh Imran, another businessman, said the project was good and should have been done much earlier but presently its timing was wrong. He said sales were affected by this remodeling project whereas the input costs of the shopkeepers remained the same.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, LDA DG Tahir Farooq visited G-1 Market Johar Town and reviewed the ongoing development works. He directed for accelerating the development of parking area and development works. He said the convenience of local traders should also be kept in mind.

LDA teams conducted a full-scale operation against illegal commercial buildings and commercial fee defaulters and sealed 109 properties and demolished three properties. The sealed properties included private schools, banks, pharmacies, labs, clinics, restaurants, beauty salons, shops, offices, stores, and others.

Similarly, LDA teams conducted a grand operation against encroachments in different blocks of Sabzazar for the second consecutive day and removed encroachments from government land in Babu Sabu, Truck Stand and D Block Sabzazar. The teams also carried out operations in Block C, Block K and Block D in Sabzazar Scheme and demolished sheds, sheds and temporary encroachments from several properties.