No let-up in gridlock despite CDGK, police assurance

Traffic jams continued to occur in the city on Wednesday even after the assurance of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and the city police to the higher judiciary that they will take special measures to check traffic congestion.
It was heavy rain in the city in the morning that clogged all major roads as water accumulated in the depression of roads and the vehicular traffic could not move smoothly. The stagnant water caused breakdown of small cars, which submerged in knee-deep water.
The traffic on M.A. Jinnah Road, which runs from the Quaid's mausoleum to Native Jetty Bridge, remained heavy. It moved at snail's pace and created worst traffic jams.
All traffic signals were inoperative and the traffic police continued to remain standing beneath the trees alongside the main road. A few police constables, who were there to control the traffic, were unable to regulate it. Mini buses and motorcycle were not prepared to follow their instructions but adamant to violate traffic rules.
The M.A. Jinnah Road was not the only place where traffic jams could be seen. Saddar, Electronic Market, Regal Chowk, Burns Road, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Shahrae Faisal, Abdullah Haroon Road, Clifton Road were the other spots where traffic jams occurred intermittently.
Traffic jam on Shahrae Faisal choked all roads leading the Jinnah Hospital, Children Hospital and National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. Ambulances could be seen honking for space to move patients lying in them but without any success.
Situations in other parts of the city were no different because of the spillover effect of traffic jams on busy main roads and thoroughfares. Police officials say that construction on main roads (M.A. Jinnah Road), at the corner of the Sadder Electronic Market and in the Clifton area are only a few spots where traffic jams occur. Other areas of the city where construction material is lying on the road are even worst affected by traffic congestion.
They said that construction activities in the city and many residential areas were one of the main causes of traffic jams in the city. The contractors and the builders have pleased CDGK officials, who do not take action against them, hence traffic jams.
They said that police were helpless in most of the cases. "A petty traffic constable is helpless before the officials of the CDGK. How do you expect him to enforce traffic rules when influential people just do not bother about him? He is helpless."
They say that only co-ordinated effort of the CDGK and the police was an answer to the existing traffic jams in the city. "I do not think that the improvement would come soon," they added with a sense of disappointment.