Once again road digging has begun all over the city in the name of development and improvement of road network to facilitate smooth flow of vehicular traffic. The dual road passing through the Sir Syed Girls College and the Rizvia Society has been completely scooped by heavy road construction machinery and the debris that has gone three to four feet high has been piled up alongside the one-kilometer road.
The road is closed for all kinds of traffic and it has been diverted to the remaining half of the road, which in itself is insufficient to cater to the needs of traffic during peek hours. The rush of traffic when it gets additional input of heavy duty trucks coming from the industrial area and moving toward the Super Highway creates mess of everything that is there on the main road and forces travelling people to remain standing in the jam packed and forcefully detained traffic. Poor souls in the queue curse their bad luck and swelter and wilt in their hot cars.
Those who try to escape the traffic jam on this road try to find alternate routes without knowing the chain effect of such mixed up efforts. These efforts end up in another kind of vexation as after entering into a lane one comes to know that one has been trapped in between two lanes which are closed at their entrances by putting up barriers. Trees are the first victims of this senseless activity as the residents of these localities cut off branches, at times the trunks, of nearby trees and use them as barricades. The second victim is a commuter who is left with no other option than repenting his decision to choose a narrow lane as a short cut to his problems.
On the one hand people are not aware of the importance of these trees which absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen and on the other the creation of additional obstruction that further adds to traffic jams in the adjoining arterial roads. Cutting of trees is a long-term harm whereas creating obstruction in the flow of traffic and digging of roads and leaving them unattended is a short-term harassment.
This cutting of trees to raise barriers and using rubble for creating obstruction for the commuters by the residents is reflective of their frustration against the irresponsible act of civic bodies, which care less about the citizens living in their administrative jurisdiction. The continuance of such irresponsible acts, which irk people, helps create aggressive attitude of those who are otherwise tolerant to difficulties, which are accidental. There is need to look into the prolonged irritating effect of mismanaged traffic and roads that exist but are unusable.
The load of traffic on this Rizvia-SITE road when blocked and diverted to another road is not without its spillover effect. All vehicular traffic passing through the Gru Mandir and the Business Recorder Road and entering into Gulbahar to reach either SITE industrial area or to Nazimabad, North Nazimababad and North Karachi get multiplied slowly and slowly. Traffic coming from Liaquatabad to Nazimabad roundabout also remains suspended for longer durations than is usual in this area.
This is not unique with this road. Similar hazardous condition exists in many parts of the city where even traffic signals do not work. The under construction road, heavy traffic and inoperative traffic signals is the right recipe for traffic management disaster. Does this suit city district government of Karachi?
The civic body under whose jurisdiction such construction work takes place does not feel it its responsibility to inform people in advance of the impending inconvenience to them. There is no system of creating alternate routes for the vehicular traffic to keep the city life smooth. The time taken to repair a dug up road is usually too long and depends upon the convenience of a contractor who in turn maintains the pace of his work strictly in accordance with the payment schedule.
Contractors says that once they have overspent the money from their own resources it is reimbursed after a long time and prompts the contract awarding agencies to expect the same on other similar occasions. They are of the opinion that the pace of work could be accelerated depending upon the payment schedule and some kind of protection mechanism that could save them from the greedy officers. These greedy officers want contractors to clear their share of cut irrespective of any progress in the execution of the contract and initiation of civil work. The practical difficulties in getting a contract and executing it are many and they are to be removed.
Many contractors' firms are now fully equipped with latest construction machinery and are capable of delivering quality services but the corruption in the civil bureaucracy is the main obstruction to speedy completion of work.
Contractors say that corruption begins from the top of a department and ends up at the level of a peon who carries file from one table to another. Those days when ten percent was the normal cut have now gone and officers do not settle down on less than fifty, and at times sixty percent. It is one of the main reasons why contractors run away after drawing part payment of the contractual sum and leaving the work incomplete. Dug-up roads in almost every locality of the city are the victims of such evil. It is only the common man, who pays all taxes through his nose, suffers.
We have special police for cruelty to animals (SPCA) to save animals from their heartless owners who force them to suffer pain of illness or that of a deadly wound and work. Is there anybody to look into this cruelty to human beings. Dug-up roads and the innocent common man!
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