close
Tuesday March 19, 2024

Repairs for GT Road

October 15, 2019

I frequently travel from Islamabad to Gujrat and back on GT Road. It’s very sad to note that the state of this important portion of the road has deteriorated a lot over the last few years. The traffic density is also maximum due to highly populated areas around it. As you travel you notice that motorists mostly use the right (faster) lane. The left lanes on either sides of the roads are really in a dilapidated state. They consist of uneven, broken portions and are bumpy at most of the places. Even heavier vehicles like trucks and buses which are supposed to move on the slower (left) lane, are forced to use the faster lane. What happens as a result is that the faster moving vehicles have no choice but to overtake the trucks/buses from the left side, thus going against the rules of the road.

The deplorable state of the left lane, meant for slow moving traffic can be attributed to two factors. First, mostly these roads cannot handle trucks that are always carrying more than permissible limits of load. Hence over a period of time they become uneven, broken and bumpy. Second, the National Highway Authority also makes no efforts to repair the affected portions on time. As far as I am concerned, with the money they earn from the toll plazas, the road repairs department personnel should be repairing the broken, uneven portions. Timely repairs of roads can help avoid a lot of inconvenience. It would also considerably reduce the wear and tear of the vehicles. I am not quite sure whether we have a foolproof system of monitoring the maximum load-carrying capacity of heavy vehicles. If not, we must have one at the earliest.

Cdre (r) Sajjad Ali Shah Bokhari

Islamabad