LAHORE: Traffic gridlocks are not something strange to Lahoris but VIP movement on city roads on Saturday added insult to the injury.
Commuters were left stranded in traffic jams for several hours, as traffic police and personnel of law enforcement agencies had placed barricades to divert traffic due to VIP movement owing to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to the city, who earlier participated in a function held at Jamia Naeemia (Garhi Shahu) and later went to the Central Police Office (CPO) near Old Anarkali to participate in a inauguration ceremony to introduce computerised system at police stations across the province.
As several roads were blocked by authorities concerned, traffic burden shifted on other roads, which led to severe traffic jams on several roads, including The Mall, Jail Road, Davis Road, Allama Iqbal Road, Egerton Road, Empress Road, Abbot Road, Lakshmi Chowk, Railway Station, Canal Road, Lower Mall and other important roads.
Ambulances carrying emergencies remained stuck in traffic jams, while commuters had to face a lot of troubles for several hours to move from one place to another. Ambulances of rescue teams also failed to respond to emergencies timely due to massive traffic jams. A spokesman for the Rescue 1122 said that neither their ambulances could respond to emergencies timely nor they could shift patients to hospitals in time. He added that delay in response time ultimately added to sufferings of patients and their families.
Thousands of candidates, who had come to apply for a recruitment test in Punjab police on Saturday, had to face a lot of problems outside Police Lines Qilla Gujjar Singh, as one side of Empress Road was completely closed.
Parents, who had come to pick their children from schools, also remained stuck on roads for hours. They blamed traffic police for mismanagement and said that they were incapable of managing flow of traffic. Officials of the Civil Defence and other departments were also seen performing duties but they could not manage the traffic flow. People were of the view that traffic police should have devised a diversion plan to facilitate the citizens.
Sarfraz, a commuter who was stuck in a traffic jam, told Daily Times, “Traffic jams not only increase noise and air pollution in the city but it also impose an extra burden on commuters’ pocket, as vehicles stuck in traffic jams consume costly fuel.”
However, a spokesman for the chief traffic officer said that traffic jams were a result of ongoing development projects in the city and the VIP movement. He said traffic wardens tried to divert traffic to link roads but they too were blocked.
Punjab Governor Rafiq Rajwana, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Speaker National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, several government officials as well as PMLN leaders also accompanied the prime minister during his visit.
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