LAHORE: The provincial capital witnessed traffic jam situations in most of its parts here on Friday.

The gridlock made it another tough day for the motorists who lashed out at the Punjab government for not bringing relief to the citizens.

Complaints of traffic mess have gone unnoticed since the city traffic police shifted their major focus towards generating income from heavy fines to meet the target set by the authorities concerned.

This was evident from the ‘funny claim’ of the senior traffic police management, which on Dec 11 announced that it had collected Rs3 billion as fines from citizens for violating traffic rules during 2024.

An official said the traffic police high-ups made the announcement, setting aside the recent serious reservations of the motorists as they face an aggravating traffic situation with every passing day in Lahore.

Traffic chaos brings city to a standstill

On Friday, he said, the city witnessed traffic jams at more than 80 points, including the leading roads, roundabouts, and intersections of Gulberg, Jail Road, The Mall, and a majority of points in Johar Town, Iqbal Town, Ferozepur Road, Faisal Town, Defence Road, Adda Plot and Multan Road.

Several leading roads in the Defence Housing Authority, many points in Shahdara, Ravi Road, Mozang and Lytton Road were also among those where bumper-to-bumper traffic was reported throughout the day.

The situation particularly aggravated after Friday prayers and in the evening on Friday, where hundreds of vehicles, including ambulances, remained stuck for more than an hour, causing a great deal of inconvenience to motorists.

The long queues of vehicles outside Jinnah Hospital and Services Hospital also exposed the incompetence of the traffic police authorities, as the wardens were busy rounding up motorcyclists and other vehicles to impose heavy fines to generate revenue.

There were reports that the traffic police authorities had strictly directed wardens to hit the target of generating revenue of more than Rs3 billion before the end of December and shift their entire focus to the ‘order’ rather than discharging any other duty.

The Main Boulevard Gulberg was one of the leading roads of the city, which saw bumper-to-bumper traffic jams all day on Friday, besides the road leading to Liberty Market.

Similarly, MM Alam Road and other small arteries leading to Hussain Chowk in Gulberg reported the same aggravated situation.

It may be mentioned here that CCPO Bilal Siddique Kamyana had recently suspended 12 wardens from service following the hours-long traffic jam at Adda Plot near Raiwind Road.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024