ISLAMABAD - City managers seem to be in utter confusion about handling vehicular movement in the federal capital, besides minimising dust emission, due to work on metro bus project that has virtually disrupted inter-city movement after all routes leading to 9th Avenue were blocked on Saturday.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) acknowledged that people in Islamabad were faced with three major problems due to work on the bus service including traffic jams, dust emission and shifting of utility services.
As work on one of the busiest traffic routes in the capital has been started, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has blocked all connecting routes to Agha Shahi Avenue triggering massive traffic jams in areas of I-8, I-9, I-10 and in G sectors of the federal capital.
Besides traffic congestion, excavation work on the site has resulted in air pollution forcing residents to wear masks as Commissioner Rawalpinid Zahid Saeed on Friday last assured that his office would hand over two mechanical sweepers for cleansing roads in Islamabad.
Chairman CDA Maroof Afzal on Saturday constituted a joint team of technical persons, comprising representatives of CDA, SNGPL and NESPAK, directing them to sit jointly and finalise shifting of service lines from the right of way.
On Friday PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, who is also chairman metro bus project implementation committee, chaired a high-level meeting at Jinnah Convention Centre for chalking out strategy to clear hurdles in execution of the project.
To overcome the issue of traffic, the chairman asked the consultant of the project to sit with the traffic engineer of CDA, representatives of contractors and Islamabad traffic police to devise comprehensive traffic and security plans for the routes where the work on the metro bus project was being carried out.
He directed all concerned that the comprehensive traffic plan should be evolved in consultation with all concerned departments, besides installing diversion boards that are visible during day and night. He further directed the contractors to dump the debris at specific dumping site already allocated and identified by the CDA. He said that debris and other material should not be left on the site or on roadside but should be disposed off on daily basis to save the public from inconvenience.