Traffic congestion troubles twin cities’ dwellers

Islamabad : Commuters of twin cities traveling via Islamabad Expressway including government servants, those work and study in Islamabad but have residence in adjacent areas are facing traffic problems twice a day during peak hours.

According to the commuters, road remains congested in morning around 9 am and in evening after 4 pm.

Zeshan Ahmad, working in a private firm told this agency that he did not know the exact time to reach the office and that routine runs him agony as he had to depart early from the home.

Aliya Habib, a school teacher said, “I travel daily from Rawalpindi to Islamabad for my job. I’m working in a school as science teacher that observes very strict timings and traveling through express highway has increased the traveling timings in routine.”

When contacted about this traffic mess on this artery almost on daily basis, Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) source said that traffic remained jam on this road after breaking down of some heavy vehicle and absence of any machinery with ITP to immediately remove such vehicles was the main reason behind it.

He said that heads of ITP along with high officials of CDA and police visited the various roads of the city including Expressway during the last month and considered about the option of widening of various roads to avoid traffic congestion there.

The source said that he was hopeful for improvement of situation in coming days. He told that an option was being considered to specify services roads along Expressway for motorcyclists and ensure lane discipline in the city.

He spoke at length about the issues with ITP and said that there had been 631 personnel in ITP at present and an additional strength of 3000 policemen WAs required to run the traffic related affairs very much effectively. He said that 631 traffic policemen for the Capital city were insufficient to handle traffic related issues.