KCCI president demands effective strategy to avoid traffic jams

President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Shamim Ahmed Firpo has advised the concerned authorities to take notice of chaotic traffic situation of Karachi and chalk out an effective strategy to rid Karachiites of it.
"Business and industrial community warmly welcome Sindh government's willingness to improve the road infrastructure of Karachi which was in an extremely dilapidated state but this development work should be carried out in an organised way with proper provision of alternate routes," Firpo said, urging the government to ensure availability of traffic officials all the time for smooth flow of traffic and completion of the projects within the minimum possible time by utilising all available resources.
He said that strategy be devised in a manner that citizens heave sigh of relief.
He urged the authorities to speed up various ongoing infrastructure development projects pertaining to construction and rehabilitation of roads as the citizens have been facing immense hardships and constantly complaining about severe traffic jams at some of the busiest roads of Karachi.
"Karachiites have been suffering badly every day due to development work for Green Line Project by Federal Government, rehabilitation and reconstruction of Tariq Road and University Road and remodelling of Baloch Colony Flyover," he said, adding that the development work commenced simultaneously without provision of proper alternate routes/ diversions, which remain the cause of severe traffic jams not only on these four roads but also in many other localities in different parts of the city.
He said that almost 3.5 million vehicles move daily on the streets of Karachi but there are 3200 traffic police officers for controlling the rising traffic of entire Karachi. He said that the traffic gridlocks at some of the busiest roads of Karachi provide a perfect opportunity to the street criminals to easily deprive the clogged commuters of their cash and valuables and that also requires attention of the relevant officials.
Firpo opined that instead of simultaneously initiating development work at some of the key roads of the city, the authorities should have taken up these projects one-by-one, which would have resulted in swift completion of these projects and would have created minimum problems for the citizens.
"Engaging the entire development machinery and workforce on any single project and continuation of development work round the clock would have been a wiser move, creating meagre and tolerable problems for the commuters," he said.
KCCI president appreciated the joint visits of the development projects by Sindh chief minister Murad Shah and Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar who toured numerous sites on Sunday.
"It is a good omen and clearly indicates their seriousness towards resolving the issues of Karachi but they must devise an effective strategy to complete all these projects at the earliest otherwise people may lose patience and come out on the streets to protest," he alerted.