Sheikh Amir Waheed President, Muhammad Naveed Senior Vice President and Nisar Ahmed Mirza Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry have called upon the government to arrange urgent construction of a ring road or bypass for the twin cities as due to absence of a ring road, all heavy duty vehicles were passing through the twin cities due to which traffic jams have become almost daily phenomenon in the cities and business activities were also suffering.
They said during the morning and evening hours, large number of heavy duty vehicle ply on the main highway of twin cities due to which businessmen, employees and students have to face great problems in reaching their destinations. They said the heavy duty traffic was also badly damaging the main highway of the twin cities.
They said in 1991 a plan was made by the Punjab Government to construct a ring road from Channi Sher Alam to Phallian near Chakri Interchange on the motorway, but no progress was made on this important project. Then in 2008, a fresh feasibility study was conducted to construct ring road from Channi Sher Alam to Fatejang near New Islamabad Airport. An economic zone was also planned on the ring road and the total cost of the whole project was estimated at Rs.74 billion that included construction of 75 kilometer road and economic zone. Later on, the Rawalpindi Development Authority changed the design dropping the establishment of economic zone and reducing the length of the road from 75 kilometers to 54 kilometers in order to reduce the cost of the project.
They said after the construction of ring road, the wholesale market of the city was to be shifted to Channi Sher Alam to facilitate traders to transport goods through ring road to KP, Azad Kashmir and other areas. However, it was unfortunate that despite doing so much working, no headway was made on this important project. They said the Punjab Government had excluded this key project from its annual development plan of 2017-18 and asked the RDA to undertake this project, which was not a wise move.
They said that government should issue funds for this important project or construct it on public-private partnership basis so that the business community of the twin cities could be facilitated in promoting business activities and Rawalpindi/Islamabad could get rid of heavy traffic jams.
