Travel on Rawalpindi’s Rawat-Kutchery road a nightmare for commuters

RAWALPINDI: Getting from Rawat to Kutchery Chowk has become a difficult task; it takes hours and commuters brave the difficult task of crossing the rough, pocked and bumpy road. Additionally, repair work on the Soan River Bridge, which was damaged on June 27, is still going on, making public transportation miserable.

The road had recently been renamed as Potohar Avenue by the National Highway Authority (NHA).

It connects many populated housing societies and its pathetic condition makes it difficult for the residents to commute especially since the bridge has been closed for repair work.

Residents of the housing

societies, who travel between Rawat and Kutchery on daily basis, seem helpless in getting authorities concerned realise and remove sewage accumulated on its uneven portion near Fauji Foundation Hospital, Al Shifa Eye Trust Hospital and the NLC establishments.

During rains, the newly-constructed bridge over Soan River close to Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench building (towards Rawat side) gets flooded with rainwater due to lack of drains.

Ongoing repair work on Soan River Bridge, damaged on June 27, adds to traffic gridlocks, say commuters

Video clips of vehicles submerged in rainwater went viral on social media on Friday.

Due to the lack of drains and poor engineering, rainwater accumulates on the bridge which makes long queues of vehicles and traffic mess.

The absence of sanitation makes it another problem for commuters to pass the area. Even debris and mud lying on the road are left unattended by the authorities concerned.

Traffic jams are frequent on the busiest road where heavy traffic has already been banned due to the bridge collapse.

“I am a university student and travel on this road every day. Due to the snail’s paced traffic movement and frequent traffic jams I have missed my classes many times,” Mohammad Asif said.

He said it takes more than an hour to cross about the two kilometerers of distance which irritates the commuters.

“Like hundreds of other commuters, I often get stuck in hours-long traffic jams,” said a female teacher.

Drain holes along the old bridge were blocked with a new concrete wall erected parallel to the old safety wall.

What was the wisdom behind erecting the second safety and blocking the drains could not be justified by a senior official of NHA.

Thousands of commuters have been facing problems due to poor planning and road engineering as people say the old bridge was much better than the new construction which has already claimed the lives of two persons in a traffic accident which happened due to poor management.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2023

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