RAWALPINDI: Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood on Friday asked the civic bodies to speed up work on making congested squares on The Mall and Murree Road signal-free.

The district government plans to permanently close squares on these roads and the vehicles, using square to move left or right side of the road will have to use U-turns.

For this purpose, fish bellies would be installed on each U-turn of these roads to make turn hassle free.

The commissioner was visiting to the proposed sites for installation of fish bellies on U-turns on The Mall and Murree Road.

Chief Municipal Officer Khawaja Imran Safdar, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) Director Ali Imran, Rescue 1122 Emergency Officer Dr Abdur Rehman, Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) Director Sheikh Tariq and Traffic police officials also accompanied the commissioner.

The commissioner also visited Banni Chowk where the market would be demolished for construction of parking plaza. The officials informed the commissioner that the shops would be constructed on the ground floor while parking plaza on second and third floor.

While giving the briefing about the fish bellies, the officials said that Marrir Chowk would be made signal free and U-turns and fish bellies would be established in front of Railto Cinema and Marrir Chowk Metro Bus Station.

Second U-turn will be established in front of District Education Authority offices between Liaquat Bagh and Committee Chowk.

On The Mall, they said that the U-turn and Fish bellies would be constructed in consultation with Rawalpindi Cantonment Board. They said that all the busiest squares would be closed.

The commissioner said that the divisional administration was working to construct six parking plazas in different areas of the city and the suggestion of the traders would be given priority for such projects.

“In Commercial Market of Satellite Town, the play land would be converted into parking area and we will make the main road of commercial market as walking street,” he said.

He said the main focus of the government was to solve the traffic issues in the garrison city. He said that the remodeling of Ammar Chowk, Katchary Chowk and Defence Chowk to streamline traffic.

He said the basic aim of the U-turn and fish bellies was to save the people’s precious time and fuel. He said the recently conducted survey of Rawalpindi traffic revealed that the fuel and time of the people wasted on the main square due to rush and such decisions were aimed at saving energy.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2020