RAWALPINDI: In a bid to ease the flow of traffic in the garrison city, the district and cantonment authorities on Monday asked educational institutions, hospitals, and other commercial centres on Peshawar Road to arrange their parking spaces or face legal action.

This decision was taken during a meeting of the Steering Committee for Urban Development Projects chaired by Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha and attended by Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Director General Saif Anwar Jappa, Station Commander Brig Ahmad Nawaz and other officials from Cantt and district administrations. During the meeting, the commissioner also asked the traffic police to finalise parking arrangements for their office, adjacent to Race Course Park on Peshawar Road.

Speaking about the meeting, the commissioner said the bimonthly meeting was aimed at the effective resolution of issues faced by the development projects.

He said that the biggest problem in Rawalpindi was the traffic jam and added that a signal-free corridor was the “lasting solution to this problem”.

Commissioner asks police, RMC to clear Rawalpindi’s service roads from encroachments

About schools and offices as well as commercial establishments along Peshawar Road, the commissioner told them to move their parking spaces inside their premises. He warned that strict action would be taken against these organisations if they did not comply with the district administration’s directives.

He also directed the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and the traffic police to clear service roads in the city from encroachments to ease the traffic flow.

He also directed the officials to move a bus stop a little further from intersections for similar reasons.

Topi Rakh Auditorium

He sought a report from the Regional Transport Authority secretary and the city traffic officer at the next meeting regarding parking arrangements in Topi Rakh Auditorium adjacent to the Ayub National Park. “There is a large parking space in Topi Rakh, which should be put to immediate use. The parking should be at Topi Rakh and a shuttle service should be run from there,” he said.

The traffic police should also complete the arrangements in consultations with the station commander to arrange parking in the Race Course, he said. In the meeting, a detailed briefing on the progress of mega projects was also given by the relevant departments. It was briefed that the RDA had given the task to Nespak for a signal-free corridor on Peshawar Road, from Koral Chowk to the motorway.

The length of this corridor is 22km and its junction will include Golra Mor, Pirwadhai Mor, Qasim Market Chowk, TM Chowk in front of the GHQ, and Kutchery Chowk. After the approval from the steering committee of this project, the process to hire a consultant on a government-to-government basis would initiate.

Likewise, it was informed that the work on Rawalpindi Ring Road was in full swing and 378 machines had been deployed on the site. Regarding the progress on Daduchha Dam, it was informed that progress on the project was 12 per cent at present. The commissioner also directed Wasa (Water and Sanitation Agency) to finalise the pipeline route for the water treatment plant route in collaboration with the Defence Housing Authority.

The meeting was informed that Wasa had submitted the Leh Nullah Expressway project’s sewage component to the planning and development department. The 17 km-long trunk sewer has a maximum discharge of 72,000 cusecs.

The meeting was informed that the PC-1 for the Ammar Chowk flyover was almost prepared and would be submitted to the relevant authority in a day or two. For Kutchery Chowk, it was apprised that the project to expand the roads would be submitted to the Punjab government for approval.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2023