Destructive construction

Peshawar’s Ring Road, from Hayatabad Township till G T Road, was in a horrible condition when the ANP government started repairing it. It took literally years and was finally completed during the PTI government’s tenure. Those who travel this road know how much people suffered during the ‘repairing’ period. Now the PTI government has decided to add a service road on both sides of the road. Whether this is a good or bad decision is debatable but the contractors who are constructing the service road are determined to destroy the main Ring Road. All the construction material as well as the machinery etc are dumped on the main road. At most places almost two out of three lanes are used by the contractors for this purpose.

This has caused many accidents, particularly at night, since drivers have no idea what was dumped during the day time. There are no reflectors, except occasional boards which cannot be seen until its too late. How long it will take to complete the service roads is anyone’s guess but from the speed of the work it seems like it will be years again. So, it seems commuters will have to put up with this mess for a long long time – yet again. To top it all, these contractors are using the main road to prepare the concrete mix (cement and crush). Everyone knows that concrete mix left for just one day on the road/street turns into rock and removing it becomes impossible. So, with huge rocks dumped on the road along with sand which spills over the remaining part of the road which the commuters use will destroy that part of the road as well. What this means is that the road which took years to complete will be useless by the time the service road is completed. Is there anyone out there in the PTI government to save this heavily used road from complete destruction?

Jafar Sadiq

Hayatabad, Peshawar