Rawalpindi - A mushroom growth of elite private schools along the GT Road is leading to gigantic traffic congestions on daily basis causing immense trouble for commuters travelling on the road.

A large numbers of cars, buses, coasters and wagons are parked outside these private schools to pick and drop the students.

The situation gets worse in the morning and afternoon rush hours and the GT Road is clogged on both sides turn for hours.

Unfortunately, the district administrations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad as well as the National Highway and Motorway Police are showing fewer concerns over the lingering and worried situation that is testing the nerves of commuters and others citizens residing along with GT Road.

A visit to GT Road by this correspondent on Tuesday showed that prolonged traffic jams occurred on the roads housing the elite private schools.

The parents and drivers of students are seen parking cars in 4 to 5 lanes outside these schools while leaving one lane free for movement of rest of traffic coming from Rawat to Soan and Rawalpindi Cannt.

There was no official of the NH&MP on duty to control the traffic rush in peak hours triggering a massive jam on GT Road.

The commuters and other residents of adjoining areas, while talking to The Nation, also condemned the criminal mum of district administrations of the twin cities and slackness of the NH&MP in taking steps against the managements of private schools lacking parking spaces and creating a chaotic situation on GT Road.

“Action should be taken against those who granted NOCs to these schools without survey to confirmed either these educational institutions meet the criteria or not,” said Saleh Mughal, a journalist stuck in traffic rush while travelling on GT Road for coming office. He said that all stakeholders had ganged up in this regard and thus doubling the miseries of masses.

Aqdas Bhatti, a blogger and law graduate, was of view that the deputy commissioners of Rawalpindi and Islamabad should hold meetings with the bosses of Rawalpindi Traffic Police and NH&MP to devise a comprehensive strategy for a prominent solution of the matter. He also advised the managements of schools to provide the parents and faculties parking areas in order to avoid traffic blockage on GT Road.

“The DCs and traffic police heads of the twin cities should do something about this mess which becomes a nightmare for commuters in the morning and in the afternoon. Schools should be sealed and relocated somewhere out of city,” said Usman Chaudhry, who is an assistant professor in a university.

Imran Arshad Chaudhry, a resident of Humak, said that commuters usually travelled on wrong side of the road to avoid being caught in massive traffic jam outside these schools which posing threats to little children walking along with roads. He said traffic police should stop commuters from plying vehicles on wrong side.

A spokesman to NH&MP, when contacted, said that efforts are underway for permanent solution of this issue. “As many as 4,000 vehicles arrive in this belt on daily basis to transport the students while the schools management had not allocated parking even for their faculties and cars are parked along with road causing traffic jams,” he said.

He said that there are 12 private schools along the GT Road from T-Chowk to Soan causing traffic jams.

He said that the NH&MP have contacted the district management and city traffic police for deployment of wardens to take action against the illegal parking and to regulate the traffic rush.

“The basic reason is that NH&MP takes action against moving vehicles and not the parked vehicles or hurdles along GT Road,” he explained.

He revealed that the managements of the private schools were not cooperating with the authorities because of which the issue is still lingering on and commuters are suffering a lot. DCs of twin cities were not available for their comments.