Beautifying the beautiful

The Supreme Court has allowed the Lahore Development Authority to resume the construction of a signal-free corridor on Jail Road; the Lahore High Court had suspended work on it in a short order on April 17. Some citizens had lodged a petition with the LHC, requesting it to order the LDA to stop the construction work, claiming it was illegal and against public interest. The seven kilometre long corridor stretches from Qartaba Chowk on Jail Road to the Liberty roundabout on the Main Boulevard.
Jail Road is too wide from Sherpao Bridge to Qartaba Chowk for any traffic snarl-up. Traffic jams occur only when there is no supervision by the traffic police. On one side of the road near the Fawara Chowk stretches the green expanse of the Gymkhana golf course and a Christian cemetery.
The chief minister of Punjab has a reputation of being an achiever, but sometimes he seems to act more on his impulse than pragmatism. For instance, what was the urgent need to construct a signal-free corridor on Jail Road? Were there no other development projects of public interest that deserved priority over the corridor? Improving the sewerage system and roads in the downtown area would have been a better choice than adding more glitz to upscale areas. Extending the signal-free corridor up to the Liberty roundabout, as reported, would make the whole area look like an unnatural growth of concrete monstrosities in our historic city of leafy trees and gardens.
To push the corridor project ahead, the Punjab government approached the Supreme Court with unusual celerity but the years’ old plan of adding a lane on each side of the Canal Bank roads has not materialised. With two lanes on each side of the canal, traffic remains choked most of the time. A bus or oil tanker moving at a slow speed hinders traffic flow; a long lines of cars and motorcyclists trail behind every slow moving bus on the canal roads.
However, the glaring oversight by the authorities is a five-kilometre stretch – Thokar Niaz Beg to Shahpur – that asks for rather urgent attention. On this Red Zone is located the NHA head office, with its motto ‘Committed to Excellence’ written boldly on top of the building. Despite the NHA’s lofty slogan, the traffic chaos nearby never ceases. Bewildered passengers cross the main road to board buses in the bus stand, which has no direct approach for buses coming from the motorway or the main city. In other words, passengers are on one side of the road and the bus stand on the other. Mind you, Multan Road is a main artery to enter or depart this sprawling city of nearly ten million.
Moreover, widening roads and constructing signal-free corridors is pointless if traffic is not managed properly. Not to mention semi-literate drivers and many apparently educated ones behaving badly on the roads and showing no respect for traffic rules. Those driving expensive SUVs with tinted windows and cars with official registration plates usually consider themselves lords of the roads. A traffic warden would stop them at his own peril.
Lack of effective policing and encroachments on the roads are the two main causes of unruly traffic. Changing lanes, using cell phones while driving or taking turns without indicating is a routine affair. How can we discipline these callous riders? Penalise the errant drivers heavily without caring for their status and see how traffic conditions improve within no time.
People would have been happier with the decision of the honourable court had it restrained the Punjab government to prove its efficiency on the roads by cleaning up encroachments and traffic mess before it could resume the construction of the signal-free corridor. Constructing underpasses and widening roads is easier than streamlining traffic on the roads.
The writer is a freelance columnist based in Lahore.
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