ISLAMABAD: The much-delayed Park Road widening and rehabilitation project is almost complete, but some important works needed to be done for its optimal utilisation.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is making efforts to get the project inaugurated anytime this month. “Our only 10 days’ work is remaining,” said an official of the CDA.

During a visit to the road, Dawn noticed some missing links in the newly widened and rehabilitated road.

The project worth Rs1.9 billion being executed by the National Logistic Cell (NLC) was supposed to be completed in last December, but it missed the deadline.

Rehabilitation of bridges would be included in Phase II of project, says CDA official

There are two major bridges on the road — on Korang River near the Rawal Dam spillways and on Gumrah Kass near Comsat University.

Earlier, the road had two lanes on either sides, but under the project one lane has been added to it on either side. However, the bridges are not being expanded and could become traffic bottlenecks.

Therefore, after completion of the project traffic on the three-lane dual carriageway will suddenly face the road narrowing on the two bridges, which may also cause accidents. It was also noticed that after construction of the signal free road, it would not be possible for children, women and senior citizens of Shahzad Town to cross the road. Similarly, two to three other points near Punjab Cash and Carry, Hostel City [for Comsats University] need immediate relief in terms of installation of pedestrian overhead bridges. The U-turns need proper designing, especially at the T-junction of Park Road with Kurri Road.

During brief interviews with several officials and after seeing the CDA records, it was noticed that this road provided indirect access to Park Enclave-I &III, PHA Housing Scheme, Bahria Enclave, Park View City, Kuri Agro Farming Scheme, planned Kuri Model Village and many un-planned and unregulated settlements along Lehtrar Road.

It also provides direct access to several areas including CDA’s Park Enclave I-III, Shahzad Town, Rawal Town, Lakhwal area etc.

The records show that work continued on thousands of kanals in various approved housing schemes in adjacent areas including a CDA-DHA joint venture on 10000 kanals and in coming years this road will face growing traffic.

There is also a need for an efficiently designed T-junction incorporating Kurri Road U-turn, which is very narrow and a major bottleneck right now.

CDA officials noted that the model of Faisal Avenue near F-7/F-8 Markaz turns should be adopted for this junction.

Lane marking and yellow cat eyes for outer lanes and white cat eyes for internal lane separation are also not yet installed on the road.

Meanwhile, it was also noticed that 150-200 feet wide road cuts (without proper designing) have been left at about five points for U-turns, which has been causing very causal maneuvering of vehicles.

Similarly, work on installing street/roads lights is also yet to be done. Curb stones have not been coloured so far, creating problem for drivers at night.

At many points, curb stones are either not constructed or have been removed by motorcyclists to avoid the U-turns.

Similarly, some temporary cuts for diverting traffic still exist like at Banigala Mor, National Institute of Health stop. In some areas, motorists were also seen moving on the wrong side of the road to avoid U-turns.

When contacted, CDA’s director media Shahid Kiani said the project faced delay due to various reasons, but the incumbent CDA chairman ensured its early completion.

“As far as expansion of bridges is concerned, we are now about to complete the phase 1 which includes expansion and rehabilitation of the existing road infrastructure while the expansion of bridges was not part of this phase, which would be included in Phase II of the project along with the service roads,” he said.

He said for installation of three pedestrian bridges, estimates and designs have been completed and “soon we will place the orders to our vendor after the necessary approval in this regard.”

“The work is near completion and the carpeting and other allied work including lane marking would be mostly completed within next 10 days. U-turns would be made in accordance with international standards after the completion of the project. The temporary cuts which have been made for traffic diversion and better management would also be removed once the project is complete,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2024