Sunday, February 7, 2010

Lack of pedestrian bridges, over speeding; under-aged drivers kill at least 6 citizens daily

“There is need to redefine role of traffic police and to devise a solid strategy for the safety of citizens. Placing traffic police under CDGK’s control as trial should also be considered”


“City nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal wanted to put an end to the road casualties and the menace of over speeding but he regretted that he had no control on traffic personnel. There should be at least a trial that the traffic police should be placed under CDGK’s control for three months to witness the improvement and if it worked, then necessary legislation should be made at the floor of the provincial assembly for permanent control of the traffic police”

December 31, 2010
By Irfan Aligi

KARACHI: There is a need of around 350 pedestrian bridges in the city of which only 52 have so far been established. Eight out of 52 bridges were installed on Built and Operate Basis. Seven pedestrian bridges are under construction. So far the CDGK has spent Rs 880 million on 44 pedestrian bridges.

The CDGK T&CD has sent a summary to federal government for the sanctioning of Rs 600 million for further 30 pedestrian bridges’ installation. The summary has been approved and has been forwarded to Sindh government for onward process.

After devolution in 2001, the traffic engineering Bureau was redesignated to City District Government Karachi’s (CDGK) Transport and Communication department (T&CD), which bears the responsibility to ensure establishment of U-Turns on main avenues, road marking, lane marking, traffic signs and construction of over head bridges.

Over speeding has claimed hundreds of lives in city while number of casualties and accident and trauma cases are reported at all major public health facilities in the city.

Unfortunately, the authorities especially the ministry of transport, Capital City Traffic Police and local government has lacked appropriate measures to curb the menace of reckless and under-age driving while at the above level, there is no implementation of law and order and devising strategy for the elimination of the menace has yet to be made.

The CDGK T&CD Executive district Officer (EDO) Shabih Ul Hassan has claimed that it was the duty of CCTP to ensure implementation of Traffic rules and regulations and casualties recurring on roads due to over speeding was due to lack of CCTP’s potential planning and control.

The EDO said that the City nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal wanted to put an end to the road casualties and the menace of over speeding but he regretted that he had no control on traffic personnel. There should be at least a trial that the traffic police should be placed under CDGK’s control for three months to witness the improvement and if it worked, then necessary legislation should be made at the floor of the provincial assembly for permanent control of the traffic police.

He said that the CDGK T&CD has invested millions of rupees to prevent wrong diversions from U-Turns after the T&CD had installed road spikes on U-Turns but what a misery that the drug addicts had dug out dozens of such installations. It was the duty of police to ensure these measures were protected.

He said that as far as the menace of over speeding was concerned, the CCTP and Police were responsible and they should concentrate on their professional challenges.

Replying to a question, the EDO said that he would request the city nazim to depute City wardens (CW) on various spots on main roads other than main traffic signal because traffic personnel already flooded majority of traffic signals and there was no need to depute any CW as well.

In this regard, citizens demanded establishment of special courts for dealing with reckless drivers with heavy penalty and imprisonment while government should ensure the victim get due medical treatment and cash compensation on time by any means.

The citizens also said that in case of accidents, the area police incharge should also be removed of service while sped monitoring devices and special cameras should be installed.

Interestingly, one traffic police officer said that traffic police and Police should be placed under direct control of high court and it should be made accountable for any negligence. He added that placing traffic police and Police under the supervision of a justice of high court would prevent deployment of police on VVIPs’ protocol duty and would be free from political pressure.

There are various spots in the city that are considered most dangerous as regards to passerbys such as from Surjani Chowrangi to KDA chowrangi in North Nazimabad, from Nagan Chowrangi to Gulshan Chowrangi, From Civic Centre to People’s secretariat Chowrangi, From Matric Board Office to Rizvia Chowrangi, From Tin Hatti to Liaquatabad No 10, From Ayesha Manzil to Ancholi, From Jama Cloth Market to Mithadar Chowk and many others where traffic crossings were a routine despite the fact that a number of CCTP’s personnel have been posted for control of traffic.

These areas are majority of times during 24-hours cycle under high speed traffic volume and paucity of over head bridges and lack of traffic police’s interest to control the devastating over speeding especially by under-aged drivers has wreaked havoc on helpless citizens.

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