ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Sunday started construction of merging points on Islamabad Expressway to shift partial traffic on the wrong side (with less traffic) during rush hours.

A press release issued by the CDA said: “Due to high traffic flow in the peak hours from Koral Chowk to Zero Point, citizens are facing severe difficulties. In comparison, traffic in the morning hours from Zero Point to Koral Chowk is relatively less. So CDA management has decided that with the assistance of Islamabad Traffic Police, traffic would be diverted on two lanes of Zero Point to Koral Chowk portion of Islamabad Expressway from Koral Chowk to Zero Point to maintain uninterrupted flow of traffic.”

The CDA’s Machinery Pool Organisation (MPO) is constructing one merging point near Quaid-i-Azam’s portrait and another past the I-8 bridge and before Zero Point.

In order to maintain the flow of traffic on the expressway, especially during peak hours, a modern traffic management system is being introduced with the help of Islamabad police, it added.

CDA says traffic to be diverted on two lanes of Zero Point to Koral Chowk portion during rush hours

“CDA is supposed to construct the merging points while traffic will be manned by Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP),” said CDA’s director Omer Sagheer, who was supervising the work on Sunday. He said the median of the highway was being removed to construct the merging and exit points.

Another officer of the CDA said after constructing the merging points, traffic will be shifted to either side keeping in view the traffic load on an experimental basis this week.

Last month, Senior Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Rai Mazhar Iqbal gave a presentation to CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed.

Mr Ahmed, who is also the chief commissioner, approved the plan and directed the head of the traffic police to go ahead with it on an experimental basis.

During the presentation, the ITP stated that two lanes of the expressway on either side would be used during the peak hours, which meant that during rush hours a total of six lanes would be available to motorists.

A senior officer of the CDA told Dawn that in this week traffic would be shifted to the second road and adequate numbers of ITP officials would be deployed to handle traffic. He said the CDA would also provide around 2,000 cones to the ITP to use for dividing the lanes.

Currently, two projects are being executed on the expressway. For the expansion of the 2km road from Korang Bridge to PWD interchange, the Frontier Work Organisation (FWO) has started work which will be completed in 15 months. However, the expansion of Korang Bridge, a project which was supposed to be completed in December last year, is facing an inordinate delay.

This bridge is one of the main bottlenecks as the four-lane expressway suddenly transforms into two lanes here. Sources said around 40pc of the construction work on the bridge was still pending.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2022