Interview of Chief Commissioner and CDA Chairman

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“My father might have been alive with us had he been brought to hospital on time,” Ghulam Ali from Korang Town lamented.
Shaken, he told me that they remained stuck in the gridlock for an hour before they could reach the highway to bring his father to hospital.
The gridlock was caused by the haphazard construction work at Koran Bridge on Islamabad Expressway.
Islamabad Expressway is the main road connecting Islamabad with GT Road. Heavy traffic has been restricted on GT Road threading through some Cantonment areas of Rawalpindi as it could be a national security threat.
As a result, menacing trucks and noisy buses are unleashed on Islamabad Expressway so that they could again drive on GT Road via IJ Principal Road.
This way, they wreak havoc on Expressway and leave clouds of smoke on IJP Road, threatening human lives and climate of both Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
It is estimated that two-thirds of about three million-strong population of Islamabad lives in the areas that flank Expressway.
Mansha Sahi, former General Secretary of Soan Garden Housing Society and a community leader, told me, “Over three years have passed since widening of this road from Gulberg to T Chowk started. There are four to five bridges on this road. But it seems that the construction work started without any planning and expertise in engineering.”
At the start, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) gave contract of the road to someone. Then the civic body awarded contract to FWO. But neither the private nor the public contractor has made any sense constructing this road, which is why the CDA keeps on missing one deadline after another, Sahi said.
Ghazal, a student of criminology at Quaid-i-Azam University, says that she has to go to the university from Rawat. “Thank god that the portion from T Chowk to Naval Anchorage Interchange has almost been built. But trenches have been dug from Naval Anchorage Interchange to Gulberg Interchange. Travelling in public transport on this road for a woman is simply unthinkable,” she said.
Dr Atif Shehzad Sahi, a professor of media studies, has made a song on this road. His song has been very hit nowadays in Islamabad. “Basically, I wanted to highlight this matter. No one is listening to us. People are dying. They are getting sick. Rash driving and quarrels are a routing. Moving on this road looks like someone dives through a muddy puddle. But the CDA simply ignores it.”
Talking about his song, he said, “I wrote, sang, directed, produced and presented it myself. Effective communication is the essence of mass communication. And I think that I have made a success as my song has got more than 20,000 views in a week. I worked for news TV channels and now I have been utilizing my skills to highlight this matter.”
The areas that are closely linked to this road are DHA, River Garden, Naval Anchorage, Jinnah Garden, Sawan Garden, CBR Town, PWD, Pakistan Town, Korang Town, Bahria Town, Doctors Town Media Town, Airport Housing Society, Judicial Coloney, Ghauri Town, Khanna, Iqbal Town, and Sohan etc.
Azhar Jatoi, vice president of the National Press Club, said that it is all politics. Jatoi lives in Media Town. He says in the first instance, Expressway from Faizabad to old airport interchange was widened and built. “At that, the mighty people used this road from Islamabad to airport in Rawalpindi. They built the stretched they used. Though Islamabad Traffic Police never bothered to give a breakdown of the vehicles move on this road, I can tell you that the number is in thousands as I travel on this road on a daily basis.”
These thousands of vehicles then started piling up on Gulberg Interchange, he said. Traffic used to drip past that bottleneck, he said.
Explaining the politics, he added that Nawaz Sharif announced to complete this road. However, after his removal, Imran Khan got maximum votes from the housing societies that surround this road. “Khan had no choice but to start work from Nawaz had dropped. But the construction kept on dragging behind the schedule. Then Shahbaz Sharif became prime minister and he personally visited the construction site on multiple occasions. Work sped up. Again, it is slowing down.”
Ali Raza Alvi, former president of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and a known TV anchor, who also lives in Media Town, says that how tragic it is that the federal capital does not have a bypass while no major city in Punjab is without a bypass. In the absence of the bypass, all the heavy traffic is put on this road and lives of citizens are endangered. Situation on the roads leading to Expressway is also no better, he said. “PWD Road and Model Town Road have their own problems. They are impassable. Encroachments are everywhere. It takes at least half an hour to reach Media Town from Expressway. It is a nerve-breaking experience.

Interview of Chief Commissioner and CDA Chairman

Capt ® Anwarul Haq, Chief Commissioner of Islamabad CDA Chairman, however is hopeful about completion of the project.
“We cannot press the contractor to work faster at the cost of quality. We have already seen that quality has been compromised where contractors were pushed hard,” he said.
“Second, we have to keep the road running. Construction work cannot be started simultaneously on both sides of the road. It will block the traffic. This is why one side of the road is open and is built to a big extent. The other side is being constructed and soon will be opened too,” he said.
He said, “Half of the road has almost been completed. It is the stretch from T Chowk to Naval Anchorage Interchange. Now the other half from Naval Anchorage Interchange to Gulberg is being built. It will soon be completed.”
On the question about bridges, he said there were some hurdles. “Now all those hurdles have been removed. All the bridges are being built at this time. True, people are facing difficulties. But I can assure them that this difficult time will be over soon.”

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Sajid Hayat
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