The city’s traffic woes should ease up by the end of this month, with work on several major road projects to be completed in the coming weeks.
The Model Town underpass is to open today (January 11) while work on the Metro Bus Service (MBS) corridor is to be completed by January 27. The Kalma Chowk underpass is to be finished before February 10.
Officials of the Traffic Engineering and Planning Authority (Tepa) told The Express Tribune that the Rs520 million Model Town underpass had been finished and only awaited a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The two-lane underpass is 600 metres long and will cater only to ground level traffic, meaning vehicles using the Kalma Chowk flyover will not be able to enter Model Town via the underpass. The underpass is 5.1 metres high so it will be able to accommodate heavy traffic.
Mazhar Hussain, the project director for the Model Town underpass and a section of the MBS, said that the underpass would be opened to traffic today. He said that the dedicated bus lane being built for the MBS would be completed by January 27.
Though the chief minister has previously set earlier deadlines for the MBS project which have been missed, Hussain said that the work was now near completion and the deadline would be met. Workers are currently laying the road surface on the 8.6-kilometre elevated track for the MBS running from New Muslim Town to Data Darbar.
The bus terminals and ticketing systems for the MBS will take a little longer to complete. The bus service is to be free for an initial period.
The Tepa officials said that the Punjab government has set a January 31 deadline for the completion of the Kalma Chowk underpass, though the official deadline in the contract for the project is February 10.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 11th, 2013.