LAHORE - The provincial metropolis experienced worst kind of traffic mess throughout the day on Monday on the arrival of Turkish Prime Minister as great number of vehicles remained struck for hours on the leading roads during the VVIP movement.
The flow of traffic further worsened on the main roads as the police blocked several leading arteries of the Punjab Capital to ensure safe and smooth passage for the motorcades of the visiting prime minister.
Heavy police contingents including the Elite force personals were put on high alert across the Provincial Capital and armed patrolling was intensified to avoid any untoward incident during the visit of Turkish prime Minister. The traffic wardens by putting barricades and barriers partially blocked the Canal Road, The Mall, Jail Road and other adjacent roads. The closure of the leading roads during peak-hours led to worst traffic jumbles all over the City as long-queues of vehicles were witnessed everywhere and motorists remain trapped on the roads for several hours.
Not enough the police on Monday afternoon completely closed down Shaarey Fatima Jinnah from for general traffic and diverted the traffic towards already packed roads, thus multiplying the miseries of the motorists.
According to the eyewitnesses, bumper-to-bumper traffic was witnessed at the Canal Road, Ferozepur Road and various other roads adjacent to The Mall and Multan Road till late Friday night. As a result, a great number of vehicles remained struck for hours on the main roads especially on Canal Road, Ferozepur Road and The Mall as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Turkish counterpart spent a busy day in Lahore.
Apart from the main arteries, service lanes were also witnessed packed with vehicles particularly on Lahore Canal Road (from Jail Road Underpass to New Campus Bridge and from Ferozepur Road Underpass to Kalma Chowk). The commuters were witnessed cursing the VVIP’s and exchanging harsh words with the traffic wardens over the road blockades. Traffic wardens were of the view that VVIP movement in the City was the main cause of bumper-to-bumper traffic on these roads.
The traffic wardens strongly criticized the policy of the government to block traffic unnecessarily for VVIP personalities, saying that they are facing aggressive and violent behaviour of the motorists. A traffic warden deployed at The Mall said that several motorists used abusive language and also exchanged harsh words with them when the traffic was blocked for VVIP movement.
When asked, the wardens said that motorists' attitude was natural as many of them were in hurry and wanted to reach their destinations without any delay but they remained struck due to VVIP movement at that time.
It was also learnt that another major reason behind the traffic jam was the lack of professionalism, as the traffic wardens were not imparted proper training to manage traffic mess in emergency situation.