Unclogging traffic jam

LDA hopes to reorganise traffic with an expensive road project

Lahore: Hue and cry around traffic problems have become a routine business at Shahdara crossing among commuters and traffic police.

The vehicles get clogged for hours, causing immense problems for citizens and routine movement remains at a standstill. Shahdara is the junction where hundreds of thousands of vehicles travel to Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Lahore. Due to this, the massive traffic chokes the area around the main intersection point of National Highways N-5 (GT Road) with N-60 (Sheikhupura road) and acts as a major entrance to the city for Northbound intercity traffic.
This is a real issue, especially for buses and trucks destined for Lorry Adda and Sabzi Mandi areas.

People living in and around Shahdara and Old Ravi Bridge are the worst-hit regions due to such traffic jams. Ali often gets scolded from the office as he gets late on duty more often due to massive traffic jams at and around Shahdara Chowk. It takes 30 to 40 minutes to travel a few kilometres from Shahdara to Old Ravi Bridge on average. But sometimes, it takes hours for the same passage. And now, Ali is happy to know about the Shahdara flyover project which has been approved by the Punjab government.

To ensure effective traffic management, Punjab Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) approved the multi-billion rupees project a few weeks ago. On the instructions of the Punjab chief minister, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) designed the project.

As per the proposal, Shahdara-GT Road will have two 3-lane flyovers – one on the Niazi Chowk-Gujranwala route, and the other on the Gujranwala-Niazi Chowk route. The third flyover will be a one-way, two-lane flyover constructed on the Kot Abdul Malik-Niazi Chowk route. Approximately, a total of 195,280 vehicles are expected to pass over these roads daily.

“It was long due. We needed this road network badly as traffic jams have played havoc with our routine lives,” Ali, a resident of Begum Kot, stated.

He said many people have stopped crossing the Ravi Bridge to go shopping and other recreational activities only to avoid traffic jams. “It [traffic jam] has become a routine business as traffic moves at snail’s pace each day.”

On the other hand, many accidents occur at Shahdara Chowk due to this uncontrolled movement of traffic, a traffic Warden stated seeking anonymity. He also said traffic duty at Shahdara Chowk has become such a ‘challenge’ and it is often the case that wardens would resist their posting at the most hazardous place in the city.

“The dust, noise and pollution are damaging our health. One can’t even breathe properly while on duty at Shahdara Chowk.”

The situation is not very conducive for the rickshaws and Qingqi drivers as well. A rickshaw driver Nadeem said, “We often remain stuck in traffic [jams] daily due to which our earnings get exhausted; we charge passengers a fixed amount before the start of the journey and they refuse to pay the extra in case of traffic jams.”

Nadeem hoped that the flyover project would surely address the traffic challenges.

Sharing details about the proposed project, a senior LDA official, seeking anonymity, said that signal-free traffic will be ensured through the construction of roundabouts below the flyovers. The total length of all three flyovers will approximately be around 1.6 kilometres and a total land of 45 kanals of land will be acquired for the project as well.

The cost of the construction of multi-level grade separation at Shahdara Morr will be around Rs9 billion and initially, Rs5 billion will be released. He added that the daily traffic volume had exceeded 300,000 vehicles per day (VPD), causing severe congestion during peak hours at the existing signalised Junction.

The LDA official said that most of the population located around Ravi Bridge belonged to low-income groups generating a large volume of daily commuters utilizing Qingqi for travel. “This route is from the MBS terminal to Niazi Chowk.” Similarly, he added, a high percentage of LTV and HTV vehicles also enter the city daily. According to him, the absence of dedicated storage lanes for left or right turning movements also caused the road blockade.

“Peak hour volume at the junction is around 26,400 vehicles which exceed the junction capacity. During peak hours, the average delay time works to be 11 to 15 minutes, which is excessive and results in long queues.”

The LDA official further stated that the above delays can be reduced by introducing grades by following four options. “First is the 1st Level (3+3 lane) flyover along GT Road + 2nd level (2 Lane) flyover (directional ramp) from Kot Abdul Malik to Niazi Chowk. Second is the elevated elliptical roundabout along with entry and exit ramps for GT road, Kot Abdul Malik and Old Ravi bridge bound traffic.”

He further said, “Moreover, there are the (3+3) lane underpasses along GT road plus the directional 2-lane flyover ramp from Kot Abdul Malik to Niazi Chowk bound traffic. And the (3+3) lane flyovers along GT road plus the 2-lane underpass from Kot Abdul Malik to Niazi Chowk bound traffic.”

photo: Mohsin Raza/Bol News