RAWALPINDI:The city traders have expressed distress about the ever-increasing road encroachments and demanded from the district administration to remove these encroachments to end frequent traffic jams affecting their business.
While talking to reporter, President Traders Welfare Association, Punjab Sharjeel Mir said that illegal car parking was standard even in the presence of traffic cops, creating massive traffic jams and causing accidents.
He said that illegal motorcycles parking around the Moti Bazar, Raja Bazar, China market, bara Bazar and other areas of the city had made “the situation very bad” that even a pedestrian or women with children could not move.
After taking charge, Mir added that Commissioner Rawalpindi had assured the trade bodies that the city would be cleared from the encroachers, but “no action has been taken so far”.
“It is the need of the hour to construct parking plazas in city markets at the earliest, and strict action must be taken against the encroachers,” he demanded.
President Moti Bazar Chaudary Muhammad Iqbal urged the metropolitan corporation and traffic police to play their due role in removing the encroachment from the city’s busiest roads and demanded the government devise a plan to shift wholesale markets from the city to the proposed ring road to ease traffic congestion.
He said that for the past few months, the vegetable vendors had occupied half the road by placing vegetables in front of their shops in the Bansa Bazar and Raja Bazar areas, hindering traffic flow.
Meanwhile, earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi Bench had also sought a report from Chief Secretary Punjab on a petition over illegal encroachments in Nullah Lai and Sawan river on November 3.
The petitioner, Ahsan Ali, had argued before the Court that the abundance of encroachments around the Nullah Lai and the Swan River had put the lives of residents of the twin cities in danger.