Traffic congestion being a norm in Islamabad now

There were days when after darkness in Islamabad, the city life use to fade away. There use to be hardly any markets open or any roads buzzing with traffic. A person could easily hear the humming of an engine inside the house if the vehicle went by on the adjacent road and then all would fall quiet as before.

Now the traffic has reached to an extent where the CDA had to make all together new web of roads and of course had to cut down whatever amount of green belts was left in the federal capital. Those steps faced some level of protest from the local community but they went in vain as almost everything else does.

The roads that at some stage before used to have two-way traffic now remain busy even when constructed into a proper double road.

One of the reasons of course is the sudden boost in the population of the city, those who had resources that could help them settle away from the crime stricken city Karachi is, headed north. Then there were people who previously abided abroad but the ‘imposed’ war on terrorism and the financial ability of these people to afford houses in city like Islamabad saw the population surge further. Their foreign currencies when converted into Pakistani rupee did give them an edge over those who were earning locally.

Another major factor that contributed to the surge was the highly flexible leasing opportunities being offered by all the banks. Something that was out of range for many, let’s say a little more than a decade back was easily manageable by the majority thus the spurting of vehicles on the road with now many able to pay the convenient installments.

A nightmare that I get to witness each morning with open eyes is at the I/8 sector which becomes the hub of nearly half the traffic from Islamabad and Pindi just because of the concentration of different institutions in the particular sector. Schools like Beaconhouse School System, The City School, GSIS, Shifa Medical College and some other offices as well become the reason for so much congestion that very few get to reach their respective destinations in time.

And the nightmare part 2 that very day begins when these schools get off and the offices either get the prayer break or a lunch break.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1255

Posted by Anita Khalid on Oct 23 2011. Filed under Opinion, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry