Residents welcome reopening of Kutchery Chowk after months of traffic chaos

RAWALPINDI: Traffic resumed at Kutchery Chowk, now renamed Marka-i-Haq Square, on Monday night, bringing relief to residents after months of congestion and diversions caused by reconstruction work at one of the city’s busiest junctions.

The opening came a day after Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz inaugurated the project on Sunday afternoon. The Frontier Works Organisation also held a special ceremony and arranged a fireworks display to mark the opening of the remodelled square for public use.

Under the Rs19 billion Kutchery Chowk Remodeling Project, two flyovers and three underpasses have been built to handle more than 250,000 vehicles a day, according to officials. They said a four-lane flyover has been constructed between The Mall and Rashid Minhas Road. An underpass measuring 26.5 feet in width has also been built to provide access from the old Airport Road to Saddar. Officials said traffic flow on this section stands at 197,000 vehicles per day.

They added that the Annexy Chowk, or Jinnah Park, flyover and underpass have been designed to accommodate 142,035 vehicles daily. Another underpass has been built from Kutchery Chowk to Mushtaq Baig Shaheed Road. In addition, a single-barrel, two-lane underpass has been constructed for traffic moving from Iftikhar Janjua Road to Kutchery Chowk. Officials said it is 18 feet high and 26.25 feet wide, and is meant to manage 146,252 vehicles each day.

A senior official of the Punjab Communication and Works Department told Dawn that several pending works, including lane marking, lighting, road shoulders and U-turns, had been completed by Monday morning. However, he said some work was still outstanding, including the drainage system from the Punjab Highway Department offices on Rashid Minhas Road to the RPO House on Sir Syed Road.

For the past seven months, residents had faced serious commuting difficulties because Kutchery Chowk serves as a key entry and exit point for traffic in the garrison city. During the remodelling work, vehicles were diverted to alternative routes including Ch. Bostan Khan Road, Jhanda Chichi Road, Ayub Park Road and Chaklala Scheme-III Road. Residents said these roads were damaged and riddled with potholes.

The District Council, Chaklala Cantonment Board and Rawalpindi Development Authority did not carry out even patchwork on these roads during the seven-month period.

Residents said the reopening would help reduce fuel consumption at a time of high petroleum prices.

Mohammad Akbar, a resident of Gulistan Colony, said long lines of vehicles had formed on major roads because traffic from Fauji Foundation Hospital to Chaklala Scheme-III had been diverted through Gulistan Colony.

At the same time, residents living along Ch. Bostan Khan Road, Jhanda Chichi Road, Ayub Park Road and Chaklala Scheme-III Road called on the government to repair roads they said had been damaged over the last eight months. They said civic bodies, including the District Council, Chaklala Cantonment Board and Rawalpindi Development Authority, collected taxes from residential and commercial areas but had not repaired the roads.