Missing road signs a major cause of accidents 

Tepa director says broken or missing signboards before U-turns on major city roads will be replaced; zebra crossings to be repainted

LAHORE

Most of the major roads in the provincial capital need immediate up-gradation of missing facilities such as road safety signs, broken road dividers, fainted zebra crossings and missing cat-eyes, which are causing traffic jams as well as accidents.

Visiting different city roads such as The Mall, Canal Bank Road, Multan Road, Ferozpur Road, Main Boulevard Allama Iqbal Town and etc, one can witness broken road dividers, missing cat-eyes, fainted road and traffic signs. Even the roads, which were recently constructed also lack some of these necessary facilities.

On Maulana Shaukat Ali Road traffic jams are a routine at the crossing next to Jinnah Hospital and one major reason is that the travellers coming from Allama Iqbal Town or from Canal Bank Road and intending to go to Johar Town used a U-turn, which is some yards away from the main crossing. Several people used to make a U-turn from the Jinnah Hospital crossing because of a missing sign of U-turn before the crossing. Similarly this road also lack U-turn signs on several other crossings due to which people faced inconvenience while at some places accidents are a routine because of these missing signs.

Main Boulevard of Faisal Town also lack traffic awareness and road safety sign boards. Traffic jams are seen at Kotha Pind stop where travellers make a turn towards Model Town and there is no road sign for their guiding. At Kotha Pind flats, cat-eyes are installed in middle of the road in a triangular shape due to which the three-lane road has turned into a one-lane road resulting in accidents and traffic mess.

Road safety signs are also missing on Main Boulevard Allama Iqbal Town, Main Boulevard Sabzazar housing society, Main Boulevard Johar Town and other societies. Allah Hu Chowk in Johar Town is a junction where almost 12 roads join but ironically there is no road safety as well as road direction sign. Extreme traffic jams are witnessed at this place during peak hours.

The main road at Wapda Town Roundabout is blocked by placing cement blocks because traffic jams are a routine at this place at peak time especially evening. Due to this people now have to take a U-turn from Shaukat Khanam Hospital or from an earlier road cut and both these places have no signs guiding the road users about directions.

Road signs are also missing at Mozang Crossing on Ferozpur Road while cat-eyes and road dividers on Canal Bank Road especially on the Jail Road and Ferozpur Road underpasses are missing. Traffic Jams are a daily routine at Kalma Chowk because those who want to turn towards Liberty or Garden Town have to enter a one-lane road beneath the flyover. One can witness that cars are coming in reverse direction from the flyover at this point because there is no road sign guiding them.

“Road safety instruments such as lane marking, delineators, road signs, cat-eyes, guardrails and others form an integral part of any major road and should be ensured on any road,” said Khurram Shah, a resident of Faisal Town. He said lane marking also played an important role in guiding traffic directions and all the lanes should be marked properly.

Asif Hameed, a resident of Model Town said that he daily faced traffic jam under the Muslim Town flyover and urged the authorities to install proper road signs guiding road users about directions.

On the other hand, Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (Tepa) has planned to upgrade all the missing facilities on major roads. Tepa officials said the decision was taken in a high-level meeting held some days back, which reviewed the missing facilities on city roads of the provincial capital.

They said priority will be given to the recently developed infrastructure development projects as well as all the underpasses on Canal Bank Road and other major crossings of the city. They said a new system of regular surveillance and monitoring for timely provision or replacement of missing facilities has also been devised.

They said road dividers of all the underpasses on the Canal Bank Road will be reconstructed and cat-eyes will be installed around them to give proper guidance to the commuters. Besides this, vital sign boards, which are missing or broken at various places, including the underpasses will be installed or replaced. New traffic sign boards providing guidance to the commuters will be erected at all the major crossings, the officials maintained.

Israr Saeed, Director Tepa said that broken or missing signboards before U-turns on major city roads will also be replaced or erected whereas zebra crossings will also be repainted. Reflecting tape of traffic guidance signs at underpasses will also be replaced as at many points, which had reduced illuminating effects, he maintained.