Encroachments and wrong parking in various areas leading to frequent traffic jams on city roads had created a lot of problems for the citizens, said Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Rawalpindi Naveed Irshad.
Talking to APP, the CTO informed that the city had become so congested that people had to look for parking space and were stuck in long traffic jams.
At several places, drivers had created their own unauthorised parking which was leading to more traffic congestion in the city. Apart from the shopkeepers having encroached the area outside their shops, fruit and vegetable vendors stands were erected illegally at any place in the market due to which very little space was left for commuters to pass by. He further said that although the City Traffic Police (CTP) tried to remove encroachments but, the departments concerned should play an effective role to resolve the issue on permanent basis.
Wrong parking was creating hurdles in smooth flow of traffic, he said, adding that traffic wardens and field officers had been directed to take strict action against irresponsible road users.
Enhanced numbers of traffic wardens had been deployed at busy roads to clear wrong parking while lifters were also available to lift vehicles and motorcycles parked wrongly, he added.
The CTO said all-out efforts were being made to regulate city traffic, and urged the citizens to cooperate with traffic police so that traffic problems could be resolved and people could be facilitated through smooth flow of traffic on city roads. He informed that the CTP in their efforts to regulate traffic on city roads imposed fines amounting to over Rs 16.3 million during last six months for various traffic rules violations. The CTP issued 288,786 challan tickets during the period, he added. He said that the CTP had been monitoring over-speeding on various roads of the district and taking action in accordance with the law against violators.
He informed that the squad was conducting operations to check overspeeding through speed cameras on main roads, particularly old and new Airport Road and in other sectors, including Taxila, Kallar Syedan and Meharabad.
The CTO said that the CTP had formed a special camera squad to check over-speeding on various roads and the step had helped to control fatal road accidents considerably in the district.
Naveed Irshad informed that the CTP had been making all-out efforts to control over-speeding and other violations of traffic rules.
Moreover, the CTP Education Wing was also making efforts to create awareness among road users about traffic rules, he said and advised the road users to observe traffic rules and cooperate with traffic wardens in order to reach their destinations safe and sound.
