Hello ITP! You can mitigate our miseries

Well, not that on the roads other than the ‘Islamabad Highway’ (Rawat to Koral Chowk section) are enjoying smooth and uninterrupted flow of traffic, but we, the residents of the towns and schemes beyond ‘Karal Chowk’ in the southern part of the federal capital and parts of Rawalpindi face far worst conditions while commuting.

Last year the Capital Development Authority (CDA), announced to turn the existing Islamabad Highway (From Faisal Mosque intersection on Khayaban-e-Iqbal (former Margalla Road) right up to Rawat in the south touching the Grand Trunk (GT) Road into a 5-lane signal-free corridor.

In this project the segment from ‘Zero Point to Faizabad’ was completed by the CDA including the mini-flyover at Garden Avenue. From Faizabad inter-change up to Koral Chowk (Airport Chowk) is already a five-lane part in which only one mini-interchange at ‘Khanna Pul’, like the one already constructed at Garden Avenue intersection and the other at the ‘Koral Chowk’ is needed.  But the actual problems start beyond Koral Chowk!

Thousands of commuters travel up and down this highway to attend offices in the mornings and return home in the evenings. And this is the segment of the project which is causing all kinds of problems for the commuters.

Okay, fine! These problems are because of the development activities launched at the segment starting from ‘Koral Chowk’ towards Rawat on G.T. Road. And one can easily understand that for tomorrow’s comforts, the users have to pay the price in the form of a little discomfort. But, unfortunately, the level of discomfort is much, much higher than one would have expected or those executing the project may have anticipated.

Being a victim of this daily ‘torture’ (I have to commute on this road 7 days a week!), I have witnessed on a few occasions that just a little extra effort put in by the officers of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has greatly minimised, if not prevented, the agonising traffic jams and had managed to maintain a smooth flow of traffic even during the top rush hours in the mornings. Even when the schools were open!

Wonder if on those days’ scion or scions of some ‘VVIPs’ were required to reach their classes on time!

But that proved that if the ITP has the resolve, they can easily mitigate if not eliminate the torture we, the commuters, go through every morning and evening on this segment of the ‘Islamabad Expressway Signal Free Corridor’.

We are not questioning the performance of the ITP. No doubt it was the best when the then SSP-Traffic (Senior Superintendent of Police-Traffic), Sultan Azam Taimuri, launched this force and it still is the best, second only to the NH&MP (National Highway & Motorway Police) in efficiency, turn-out and performance of duties all over the country. But, to us, it seems their main focus somehow has become confined to implementation of law concerning only three offences, i.e. ‘Over Speeding’, ‘Wearing Seat Belts’ and ‘Use of Cell Phone while driving’!

I am no expert but I believe managing urban traffic has already become a science. I still recall the days back in 1977 when the National Transport Research Center (NTRC), under the leadership of Chief, M. Sadiq Swati, launched a country-wide traffic count survey. I am sure the ITP must also have conducted some similar survey to gauge the ‘up and down’ traffic flow and the data must be available with them.

So, with that data in their possession of fluctuations in traffic flow the Traffic Police experts can chalk out an efficient strategy to deal with problem, which is no less than a physical and mental torture for the commuters.

I am no expert, but I think that if the ITP may only control the movement of cargo trucks for two hours in the morning (7 to 9 a.m.) and for two hours in the evening (5 to 7 p.m.), this step alone would help ease the flow of traffic.

If not possible to stop these trucks, overloaded beyond all the national and international laws, rules and regulations and moving at snail’s pace, (once upon a time the then DIG NH&MP Pervez Rathore tried to solve this over-loading issue but miserably failed) the ITP officers can at least made them move in single file, keeping them in the extreme left lane, thus letting the smaller traffic keep moving with ease.

The ITP can impose strict laws (just like the former IG of NH&MP Zulfiqar Cheema once did on G.T. Road), strictly preventing the trucks overtaking other till the time the vehicle ahead has become stationary!

Please ITP, kindly tell those driving at less than 60 km/h in the fast lane amounts to a traffic violation too because they are interrupting the flow of traffic and compel other drivers to violate the law by over-taking them from the wrong side, something which can always cause a major accident.

Please ITP, also ask the motorcyclists to kindly keep to their lane, have the rear-view mirrors properly installed to look as to what is behind them and not to use those for seeing their own faces.

So, dear ITP, if you can effectively manage smooth flow of traffic during the busiest hours on a given day on this part of the Islamabad Expressway (Rawat to Koral Chowk), you can do it daily!

 Please ITP! we implore you to make it a daily practice!

— File photo by Hanif Khattak