RAWALPINDI – The City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) has failed to meet the 23-day deadline to complete construction of link roads of Chandni Chowk Flyover on Benazir Bhutto Road (BBR), causing immense trouble for road users.
After holding a meeting with CDGR high-ups at Punjab House on April 17, 2012, the deadline was given by the Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan at a press conference, in the presence of PML-N MNAs Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, Malik Abrar Ahmed, Malik Shakeel Awan, MPAs Raja Muhammad Hanif Advocate, Malik Iftikhar Ahmed, Malik Ghulam Raza and Sardar Naseem, to solve the traffic problems on BBR. However, the link roads with Chandni Chowk flyover remained incomplete and in dilapidated condition.
The CDGR had also claimed to finish the ongoing construction work on links road of Chandni Chowk Flyover within the given period. But the existing situation of these roads has become a constant nuisance for the road users with frequent traffic jams, a survey conducted by TheNation on Wednesday revealed.
Rush hour traffic in the City was never less than a nightmare posing hardships for pedestrians as well as commuters.
A large number of traders, whose shops are located near Chandni Chowk Flyover, agitated against the delay in the construction work of the link roads saying: “There businesses are going in loss because of closure of all the ways leading to their shops”.
Meanwhile, concerned authorities in the Provincial government, CDGR’s Works and Communication Department and some other departments are holding each other responsible for the delay in construction of the link roads.
In addition to that the rampant construction work has left the city engulfed in a blanket of dust, creating more problems for the patients and their attendants at Benazir Bhutto Hospital. The polluted environment is posing health hazards for the population with disease like asthma and breathing problems on the rise. The citizens, traders, road users, patients and their attendants appealed to Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and other high-ups of Punjab government to take action against the concerned departments for making so much delay in completion of link roads of Chandni Chowk Flyover.
Despite several attempts, no CDGR official could be contacted for comments over the issue.