Death dance on city roads

One of the fallouts of the current monsoon rains has been that it has allowed death to dance happily on city roads. Thanks to the overzealous officials of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), which under its self-conceived 'Master Plan' has dug up half of the Karachi roads in one go to improve the dilapidated communication system.
The intentions may be sincere but the promises of converting Karachi into 'heaven on earth' have certainly backfired and the city has become 'hell on earth,' at least till such time as the ongoing works are completed.
The situation on the ground confirms that the promises were made to be broken, as the deadlines fixed for completion of various works have not been kept. The works remain half done and the pace of progress is incredibly slow. Instead of moving on war footing basis and completing the works a little ahead of schedule in view of the agony and pain suffered by people day in and day out, the works are progressing at snail's pace adding to the misery of the helpless commuters.
Battered roads, overflowing gutters, standing water creating small pools where street children are seen 'swimming' in contaminated water putting their lives to danger of catching diseases, long queues of vehicles creating worst kind of traffic jams are some of the visible hassles the inhabitants face. Their protests and demonstrations evaporate into the wilderness.
Human lives have no value. Because of choking, people die in over-crowded buses, as medical treatment is inaccessible. The occupants look helplessly at the dying people.
It is not only during the rush hours that traffic jams take place; it is for several weeks now that traffic jams keep building up to the annoyance and discomfiture of the commuters. The country is passing through worst kind of political uncertainty. It appears that it is having a demoralising effect on state machinery. Nobody is taking his work seriously.
Although traffic police is deployed at different intersections on important arteries during rush hours, the traffic jungle keeps building up unusually since early morning hours to reach its peak in late afternoon. One of the main reasons, according to police, is the dug up roads and unauthorised parking.
Look at the University Road. Starting right from the point where Shaheed-i-Millat Road intersects University Road at Central Jail corner up to Hasan Square, the road is in a shambles. Coming from Gulshan-e-Iqbal, this section is completely dug up, throwing the traffic on single lane for both up and down traffic. According to the announced policy of CDGK, all under-construction roads, overhead bridges and underpasses should be completed within four months, but except for Hasan Square none of the ongoing projects has so far met the four month completion target.
Confusion would be compounded during Ramazan, particularly in the afternoon hours, when usually all the main roads face heavy traffic rush as people are in a hurry to reach home before Iftar. The City District Government Karachi needs to gear up its efforts and plan out things to avoid ugly incidents, not very uncommon during Ramazan.
There is also urgent need to fill up all potholes immediately so that the traffic moves smoothly during Ramazan without causing problems and stall untoward incidents.
The existence of 'car bazaar' on both sides of the road between Dawood Engineering College/Islamia College up to Jail Corner crossing (chowrangi) continues to be a mystery. The car showrooms owners occupy almost half of the road authorisedly parking cars for sale. Several times action has been taken but the 'car bazaar' springs up at regular intervals.
Similarly, one side of the University Road from Hasan Square up to the Federal Urdu University (Gulshan campus) is a 'tow away' zone, but in total disregard to the sign boards, which have been put up indicating that it is 'no parking' area, cars are seen parked at owner's/driver's will. Neither the CDGK nor the traffic police muster courage to lift their finger at the wrongdoers.
Traffic moves at a snail's pace on this section of the road where, besides fist fighting taking place, accidents are also witnessed. It is a 'go' 'go' area for the happy-go-lucky car owners/drivers. They park their cars at will, totally ignoring that it is a 'no parking' zone. The two cuts on the road in front of PIA Planetarium further escalate the traffic problems at that point.
Columns after columns have been written highlighting the black spots but nobody seems interested in alleviating the problems of the people who are tossed around while endeavouring to get the wrongs removed from society.