Traffic management boards to be set up in all districts

KARACHI : A meeting headed by Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani on Sunday decided to set up district traffic management boards in all six districts of the city, in an effort to resolve traffic issues.

The boards would be authorised to remove encroachments and hindrances affecting traffic flow, said the commissioner, and could utilise the services of relevant departments to undertake steps for effective management of charged parking. The resulting elimination of traffic congestion and bottlenecks would ensure smoother flow of traffic, he said.

He said that the parking spaces provided to commercial buildings in the city would also be enforced with the support of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA). It was also decided that the district traffic management boards would coordinate with SBCA in this regard.

Shallwani asked the SBCA to play its due role and ensure strict enforcement of rules that allow building owners to utilise spaces for parking purposes and not to allow them to use the spaces to construct warehouses and shops instead. The board would bring an end to of all unauthorised parking lots (charged or otherwise) in Karachi, he added.

The commissioner said that all the boards would follow the terms of reference of the district management board already established in South district.

South Deputy Commissioner (DC) Syed Salahuddin said that the action was taken against the contractor who had allowed double parking at the charged parking space at Abdullah Haroon Road, Sagheer Shaheed Road and Mansfield Road. As per the contract made with South District Municipal Corporation (DMC), the DC said, the contractor was not following the requirement of single lane parking.

He added that there were complains of double parking at these spots.
The meeting was also informed that South district administration had removed the illegal charged parking at Teen Talwar traffic section, Gulf Centre, CTC shopping Mall and Shell Petrol pumps which fall in the Civil line subdivision. These locations were being used to run unauthorised charged parking. The DC added that 72 vehicles were impounded in the action.

An operation was also carried out against illegal charged parking and double parking in the Lyari subdivision, the areas include Mira Naka to Bakra Piri, Mirza Adam Khan Road, Nawab Mohabbat Khan Khanji Road, Sheedi Village Road and Chakiwara.

The district South administration also submitted a report to the commissioner mentioning the persistent problem of illegal parking at Mirza Adam Khan Road in Lyari, where transporters park heavy vehicles on one track of the road which has made it dysfunctional for the last many years.

Source: The Express Tribune