PESHAWAR, Oct 2: The long-awaited expansion of Surey Pul interchange connecting the Peshawar city and cantonment area will ease traffic congestion of the provincial metropolis. Work on the project is moving at a fast pace.

Traffic jams, mishaps and congestions at the roundabout necessitated its expansion leading to the government decision of launching work on the project in 2002.

Surey Pul, also known as Rahman Baba Square, links the historical Chowk Yadgar, Balahisar Fort, Pipal Mandi, Ghanta Ghar, Qissa Khwani, Khyber bazaar, Charsadda and Jail roads, Chowk Nasir Khan, Shoba Bazaar, Ander Shahr and Firdaus.

Situated near Jinnah Park and Balahisar Fort, the interchange could be termed a gateway to the Peshawar city and cantonment as well as historical Khyber Pass as the road leading to Afghanistan passes through the Surey Pul.

Thousands of vehicles cross the interchange daily and the rush go up especially during office and school timings.

Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Superintendent Shaukat Ali said: “We have issued 12,041 permits this year to regulate vehicular traffic in Peshawar.” To reduce traffic problems, the government has built the Ring Road around the city to divert the traffic of southern districts from Suray Pul, he added.

“Sensing gravity of the situation the NWFP government has decided to launch a pilot project ‘improvement of Rehman Baba Square’ to regulate and streamline the flow of traffic in Peshawar,” said Mian Mohammad Shakeel, Assistant Director of the City District and Municipal Department (CDMD).

First phase of the two-year project was launched in 2002 to shift the telephone, electric and gas pipeline under Jail and Charsadda roads in order to set stage for Phase-II (construction of flyover to interconnect GT and LRH roads) to ease traffic flow between interior city and north-eastern districts of the province.

After shifting the pipelines, he said two under passes were constructed under the railway bridge in 2003 at a cost of Rs72 million, connecting Charsadda and Jail roads with the GT road.

“Initially the government had given us three years to construct two-lane flyover of 490 meter-length and 10 meter-width between Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) road and GT road with a cost of Rs267 million,” he said.

The work on the flyover was started in March 2005 and would be completed in two years on the demand of provincial government, hoping, it would be opened for all traffic by April 2007, the official said.

“We are giving full attention to make the flyover quake proof,” said Engineer Mohammad Qayyum, deputy project manager of the Karcon Construction Company which is executing the project.

The National Engineering Services of Pakistan has designed the master plan which could withstand strong jolts measuring 9 on the Richter scale, he added.

Mr Qayyum said that 11 pillars and 64 pills of four diameters with an additional support of 51 guarders would hold the flyover. The one lane traffic would come from south (LRH road) on the flyover and turn towards east (GT road) Islamabad side.

The traffic coming from east side — Nowshera-Islamabad on GT road — and Khyber Agency, Charsadda and Warsak dam from the west side would easily pass through Suray Pul.

“We are not compromising on quality. We are checking specimen of the materials being used in flyover on regular basis at our site laboratory,” Mr Qayyum said.

“In case of any doubt, we send reports of the specimen for expert opinion to the laboratories of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Peshawar and Military College of Engineering, Risalpur,” he said.

Mian Shakeel of the CDMD said most of the important items were being brought from Karachi and Lahore to make the project more beneficial.—APP