Lahore roads gridlocked on Eid days

LAHORE
A terrible traffic mess was witnessed in the provincial capital during the first two days of Eidul Fitr as thousands of motorists remained stuck for hours on several roads of the city.
The situation was much disturbing on GT Road Shahdara, Canal Road, Jail Road, Lytton Road, Scheme Morr, Samanabad Morr, and Chauburji and other adjoining arteries where the motorists spent hours to reach their destinations due to gridlock.
GT Road Shahdara and Canal Road saw the most severe congestions, with long lines of vehicles stretching more than two kilometers. The congestion reportedly started to clear after nearly two hours late.
Similarly, severe traffic mess was observed from Chauburji to Mansoora. A long queue of vehicles was seen stuck in the traffic jam. Traffic police failed in maintaining the flow of traffic and people were forced to change the direction of route. The huge traffic jams also became a reason of more fuel consumption that aggravated the anger and frustration of people on the road.
Several motorists tried to use smaller arteries and service roads but they got trapped in the bumper-to-bumper traffic as they were already jammed with hundreds of vehicles. The traffic wardens were found absent from many roads, intersections and major signals, leaving the motorists high and dry.
A young businessman Noman Khalid got stuck in his car on the GT Road when he was coming back from Gujranwala. ‘It took me at least four hours to reach Canal Road from Shahdara, he told this reporter, adding that he remained trapped on the Shahdara Chowk for hours.
Another citizen Yasar Iqbal of Subzazar said that he was going to pick his sister from Flaming Road, but got stuck on the Canal Road for hours and waited the clearance of the road to reach his destination.
Similarly, heavy traffic jams blocked most of the main roads of the provincial metropolis. The traffic congestion started after the Lahorites thronged the City parks and other places for recreation.
Meanwhile, major roads were inundated resulting in traffic jams as heavy rains lashed the city since the first day of Eidul Fitr.
Traffic crawled at a snail’s pace as major thoroughfares were under ankle to knee-deep water. The affected areas included Lytton Road, Mozang Chungi, Bagh Gull Bagum, Chauburji, Mecleod Road, Lakshmi Chowk, Jail Road, Davis Road, Safanwala Chowk, Samanabad, Multan Road, Naulakha, Islampura, Sanda, Subzazar, Nawan Kot, Shera Kot, Gulshan Ravi, Garhi Shahu, Shadbagh, Misri Shah, Wasanpura, Badami Bagh, Lorri Adda, Ravi Road, Shafiqabad, Lower Mall, and other areas.
Minor clashes between the motorists were also witnessed in the day-long traffic mess as many of them lost their temper in utter frustration.
Ironically, traffic police did not make any efforts to regulate the traffic as water-logging and poor traffic plan affected vehicular movement.