Bari Imam residents, devotees decry shabby roads

Islamabad : The residents of Bari Imam have decried for since long dilapidated and bumpy roads leading towards the Shrine, demanding immediate attention of the authorities concerned for their re-carpeting to provide hassle-free facility.

A number of residents of Noorpur Shahan (known as Bari Imam) Sunday told APP that they had lodged several complaints with the CDA to get those roads repaired but to no avail.

Adeeb Haider, a local resident said there were two routes leading to Bari Imam locality.

First entered the area from Red Zone, restricted for public transport vehicles, while the second access was from Murree Road.

"Both the routes were required to be repaired, immediately", he said.

Another resident Shafique said the entire capital's roads are being carpeted and repaired but nobody owns this area for unknown reasons.

I myself contacted departments concerned but they come up with lame excuses.

The humiliation did not end here, he said, the roads being dug up for laying fiber optics a couple of years ago but could not be repaired, posing threat to the lives and properties of the road-users.

A daily commuter, Khalid Ahmed urged the authorities concerned to immediately start development work as thousands of devotees from across the country daily visit this shrine to pay homage to Shah Abdul Latif Kazmi, known as Bari Sarkar here.

The residents also demanded expansion of these roads and removal of illegal kiosks causing traffic jams on the shrine’s main artery.

The Capital Development Authority''s (CDA) different departments passed the buck to each other, saying this particular area did not fall under their jurisdiction.

The CDA’s Director Road and Marketing Fateh Maku said they were responsible for maintenance of the roads in urban areas and had exercised patch-working on the University road in the past.

Recently, the development work in rural areas was assigned to the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration, he added.

The representative of ICT Administration declined to comment on the issue when contacted.