Private housing societies create problems for residents

Islamabad : The residents of almost all the private sector housing societies sans a couple, living on both sides of the Islamabad Highway, especially those beyond Korang nullah, feel abandoned in context of the provision and maintenance of basic civic amenities.

The roads and streets are littered with pits and potholes, even ditches and trenches for years, prolonged gas load shedding, shortage of potable water, non-existent garbage collection and disposal system in some societies, the residential plots along the main artery, the PWD Road being turned into multi-story commercial plazas, causing worst form of parking issues, leading to frequent traffic jams, and the worst are the haphazard speed breakers of obnoxious proportion, badly damaging the vehicles are the main issues concerning the residents of these societies.

Being outside of the ‘municipal limits’ of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the residents of these settlements are left at the mercy of the managements of these private housing societies, who are completely indifferent towards resolving these common problems of residents who have bought expensive plots here and constructed their homes.

But now there is a flicker of hope for the people living in these societies. The young Assistant Commissioner (Rural), Umar Randhawa, has decided to put his foot down and use his powers to provide relief and improve their living conditions within his jurisdiction using his administrative powers.

“I have three major issues to deal with in the beginning which I believe will bring a lot of relief in the lives of people residing in these private housing societies, especially in the PWD, Pakistan Town, FBR Colony, Doctors Town, Soan Gardens, and Media Town,” AC (Rural) Umar Randhawa said while talking to The News. “The first step is to create a safe ‘Fish Belly U-turn’ at the only traffic signal left on the Islamabad Highway near ‘Khokhar Hotel’, which will help regulate an uninterrupted traffic flow up and down.

“This project we are taking up in collaboration with the CDA and the initial ground work has already been completed by leveling and grading the piece of land required for this project on both sides of the Islamabad Highway,” AC (Rural) Randhawa said. “The second project is to improve the condition of the PWD road, which has developed innumerable and some even hazardous pits and potholes, causing disruption in smooth flow of traffic,” the AC (Rural) said.

He said that in collaboration with the managements of the private housing societies in the area we have already started work on this project and the most vulnerable parts on both sides of the PWD road have already been scrapped and or dug up as was required.

“However, because of the prolonged we spell work on both these projects, the ‘Fish-belly U-turn on the Islamabad Highway and reconstruction and resurfacing of the PWD road has been put on hold for the time being. As soon as the weather will clear up, both these projects will be completed as quickly as possible,” AC Randhawa said. He said that the third component of this improvement and rehabilitating plan is to remove unnecessary speed breakers and improve their standard, particularly their height and span so that those should not damage people’s vehicles.

“Most of the existing speed breakers on the PWD road are more of a nuisance and a source of great irritation and discomfort for the motorists because of their ill design. Some of these need to be eliminated and the rest need to be improved to bring relief to the motorists,” the AC (Rural) said. He also said that some of the ‘U-turns’ on the PWD road also need to go to maintain a smooth flow of traffic.