LARKANA, Dec 2: Prolonged traffic deadlocks and bottlenecks caused by all types of movable and immovable encroachments along both sides of roads, illegal lorry stands and lack of civic sense, have almost become permanent features of city life and started telling upon people’s psyche.

It would require Herculean efforts to solve the problem because the very authorities which were supposed to rectify it were further adding to the chaos, said Qurban Abbasi, former mayor of Larkana Municipal Corporation.

Khair Mohammad Shaikh, vice-president of PPP’s Larkana district chapter and former president of Larkana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that meetings after meetings with divisional and district administration, police, transporters and other stakeholders to seek a solution to the traffic mess proved an exercise in futility.

He said the administration did not take any step to remove illegal bus and wagon stands and instead tacitly encouraged spread of encroachments.

The illegal wagon and bus stands near Ata Turk tower (airport road), main railway crossing, near Dari police station, Larkana-Qambar-Karachi road, Mirokhan chowk and Naudero chowk are major causes of traffic jams.

Qurban Abbasi urged serious efforts by deputy commissioner, taluka municipal administration, civil society, police and transporters to solve the problem.

The city is cut into two halves by a railway track and Rice Canal, which run through its middle. Four bridges on the canal link the two parts.

Important health institutions, including Larkana Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Radiotherapy, Shiakh Zayed Hospital for Women and Chandka Medical College Children Hospital and academic institutions are situated on the right bank of the canal.

During schools’ closure time traffic deadlocks become the worst, particularly at Chandka bridge and Lahori regulator bridge. If one bridge gets choked it causes a ripple effect and leads to bottlenecks at all other bridges, forcing students and patients to wait for hours for clearance of roads.

The overhead bridge, which had been built to divert heavy traffic, had to be closed soon after its construction after it developed faults. As a result, heavy traffic now passed through Bakrani road.

If heavy traffic continued to ply on the newly-built Barkani road it would cave in within a few years because the main drainage lines underneath the road had been laid without an adequate base, said Abbasi.

A senior lawyer and former MNA Khalid Iqbal Memon said the municipal administration could not remove even a small cabin placed before his house even after High Court issued clear orders to remove it. This hindrance had resulted in more than 20 accidents on the road, he said.

The roadside hotels and traders dealing in building material have developed a habit of keeping benches and piling up material along roads, which damages newly-built roads and squeeze its space.

The commissioner, deputy commissioner, DIG and SSP had decided in a meeting with representatives of LCCI and transporters about two months ago that illegal bus and wagon stands would be moved to the main bus terminal before Eid-ul-Fitr but no action followed the meeting, said Khair Mohammad Shaikh, vice-president of PPP.

Jiles Bazar, Fish Market, Lahori mohalla, Gajanpur chowk are also scenes of the worst traffic jams caused by big shopkeepers, most of them members of traders’ bodies, who have encroached upon the footpath as well as a fairly large portion of the road.

“If we try to remove encroachments or force people to shift wagon and bus stands we are deluged with phone calls and some times we receive threats too,” said Asad Shaikh, a traffic sergeant.

He accused TMA of adding to the mess and said instead of helping remove encroachments it had kept its eyes shut. There were 90 wardens to regulate traffic, which only got worse by each day, he said.

There were 14,000 Quinqui rickshaws, almost an equal number of cars and other vehicles and 2,000 auto-rickshaws in the city, which did not have defined routes and mostly under-aged boys were driving them, he said.

He said that strong political will was required to bring order to traffic chaos in the city. He said he did not remember a single day when an official of municipal administration had made a serious effort to help regulate traffic.

Despite instructions of MNA Faryal Talpur to solve the problem no noticeable improvement had been brought to traffic system, he said.

He denied being involved in ‘parchi system’, a term used by corrupt police official that refers to collecting bribes on a monthly basis and said traffic police were ready to put in serious efforts to improve traffic, provided all stakeholders, including civil society, politicians, traders and administration cooperated with them.