Motorways now open for traffic, say police following partial closure due to dense fog conditions

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Traffic moves from ring road as authority closed the road due to fog in Lahore on January 10. — Murtaza Ali/White Star/File
Traffic moves from ring road as authority closed the road due to fog in Lahore on January 10. — Murtaza Ali/White Star/File

The motorway police have said that all motorways under its jurisdiction have been opened for traffic, after dense fog conditions prompted partial closure of several motorways early on Monday.

In a post on X, the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) said, “All motorways falling under the jurisdiction of the NHMP have been opened for traffic upon improved visibility”.

Earlier, due to dense and persistent fog conditions, the motorway police had partially closed various key motorways, including sections of the M-2, M-3, M-4, M-5, and M-11.

At 10:25am on Monday, NHMP said on its X account that the M-2 motorway had been closed from Thokar Niaz Baig to Sial Mor, the M-3 motorway remained closed from Faisal Pur to Darakhana, and the M-4 motorway is closed from Shershah to Pindi Bhattian.

While the M-5 motorway is closed from Shershah to Zaheer Peer, and the M-11 motorway is closed from Lahore to Sambrial.

Earlier, the NHMP said that Motorway M-5 was closed from Rohri to Rahim Yar Khan, but it had now been opened due to “improved visibility”.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s fog forecast, the M-2 (Pindi Bhattian-Lahore), M-3 (Lahore - Abdul Hakim), M-11 (Sialkot - Lahore), M-4 (Pindi Bhattian - Faisalabad), and M-5 (Multan - Sukkur) were expected to remain in “dense“ fog situation till 11am.

Last week, three people were killed, and 34 others were injured in fog-related accidents in various parts of Punjab.

On January 7, dense fog paralysed road traffic across large parts of Punjab, prompting authorities to close several key motorways.

According to a spokesperson for the NHMP Central Region, the M-4 Motorway from Gojra to Abdul Hakeem and the M-11 Lahore-Sialkot Motorway were closed for all traffic due to severely reduced visibility.

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