PESHAWAR, Aug 22: Diversion of transport from Khyber Road to Sher Shah Suri Road has caused chaos in downtown Peshawar to the misery of motorists and commuters.

Diverting traffic for security reasons a year ago, the authorities had promised to restore traffic on the two major roads once tight security checks were in place, but they have yet to deliver on the promise.

Since traffic was diverted, Sher Shah Suri Road used by thousands of vehicles, including public transport, have seen traffic congestion, especially due to the arrival of 350 passenger wagons, 60 mini-buses and 200 buses previously plying Khyber Road.Residents of areas like Matha, Shahi Bala and Warsak Road have complained about lack of public transport vehicles.

The residents of dozens of villages used to travel in the wagons from different bus stops at the Khyber Road but now they have to pay high fares to catch taxis or auto-rickshaws for proceeding to their destinations.

The people visiting Peshawar High Court, Civil Secretariat, Army Stadium, Pearl Continental Hotel, different educational institutions and businesses are the ultimate sufferers.

It was already a busy route but the diversion has caused more problems due to the growing flow of traffic on it. The traffic jam could be seen everyday, creating great troubles for the general public and all commuters using the road as they have to suffer due to the wastage of time.

Several people working in different government and private offices said that they used to travel in the Ford Wagons in routine as they had to reach in time but now the traffic was diverted and they had to hire taxis.

“We cannot afford to pay extra money to the taxis every day but it is our compulsion because every employee has to reach the offices on time,” the people said while waiting at a bus stop for catching taxis. One Naseer of Mathra said that he worked at Deans Center and had to hire taxi and pay at least Rs200 extra on daily basis.

He said in the past the people used to walk from Khyber Road to Saddar via link roads inside the cantonment area but now most of the roads had been closed for general public, even for pedestrians.

“We have time and again talked to the government functionaries including district coordination officer and police officers but to no avail,” said Khan Zaman Afridi, president of Urban Transport Union.

He said transporters had also apprised the former Corps Commander of their complaints and requested him to solve the problem.

Mr Afridi while quoting the corps commander as saying that security forces had nothing to change routes of the traffic and it was responsibility of the district administration. He said that change of the route had also caused financial loss to the transporters as they had minimised the fare by Rs2 per bus stop.

The traffic police officers also failed to answer as to why the traffic had been diverted. The SSP traffic could not be approached, however the traffic sergeants deputed on route said that the decision had been taken at higher level to avert a possible sabotage act.

An official said many months ago, there were threats to sensitive installations and government buildings but the situation had comparatively improved, saying police had nothing to do with it as they had to follow the orders of the government.

“We are doing duties whenever deployed however it is our suggestion that traffic should be divided on different roads to ease the pressure on one said,” he said.

The official said for traffic police, it was also very difficult to manage such huge traffic on single Sher Shah Suri Road but they had to do it.

“The people experienced serious problems due to the traffic congestion on the Sher Shah Road near Saddar areas, especially at iftar time, but traders are happy as diversion of traffic has increased the number of the customers,” he said.

The official said bombings of PC Hotel, ISI building, CID station and sessions court (on Khyber Road) had alerted the government and cannot afford any threat to houses of senior civil and military officers and the sole option was to divert it to Sher Shah Suri Road at the cost of public interests.