Metro Bus Service a thumping success but more buses and extension needed immediately

Islamabad: The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service is no doubt a thumping success as far as its quality of service, timetable and utility is concerned, but its becoming operational since June last year has not helped much in reducing the traffic load on Benazir Bhutto Road. 

Traffic jams and mess-ups are still a common sight, especially in rush hours. As the most modern and state-of-the-art service became first love of twin cities commuters the moment it was launched, the need for more such services has started pouring. The people living alongside Islamabad Expressway starting from Rawat up to Kashmir Highway and beyond have already started demanding extension of Metro Bus Service route for them as hundreds of wagons and Suzuki pick-ups fail to fetch commuters to and from Islamabad to localities on both sides of the road. The result is that despite that three expansions have been executed but still Islamabad Expressway seemingly fails to accommodate the traffic load and streams of vehicles.

The residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are quite excited and happy with the upgradation of their standard of commuting but they also complain about extraordinary rush, especially in peak hours, which makes their journey a bit tough when they have to stand in long queues to wait for the next bus. And when they board the bus full to capacity the commuters on coming stations fill the buses to capacity who have to travel on foot all along the route. They demanded of the administration to increase the number of buses according to demand instead of decreasing on basis of low flow hours.

The Metro Bus Service, which has immediately been taken up by NAB for investigation into reported bungling and mismanagement, has left many scars as far its completion from many respects. A number of roads and parks have been affeted negatively by the construction and construction material spared and used in the project and their restoration will cost millions and months and may be years in some cases. The roads overloaded due to the closure or semi-closure of Benazir Bhutto Road are in a very bad shape and except for Stadium Road on which reconstruction work is ongoing all other roads are yet to catch attention of the administration.

Where the Metro is providing top class commuting services to the people of twin cities, the city planners have ill advisedly reduced turns and cuts on the road to add to the woes of commuters and motorists. These turns including one on Stadium Road near Nawaz Sharif Park, which catered to the vehicles turning to their right from Faizabad side and now they have to drive another two to three kilometres extra up to 6th Road resulting in wastage of fuel and time. Similarly, the cut closed at the Commercial Market turn is troubling motorists who have to drive more than two kilometres up to Chandni Chowk and return back.

Similarly, while the overhead bridge on 6th Road before construction of Metro track has been replaced with an underpass for pedestrians the same is not done in Shamsabad where hundreds of pedestrians would cross the road for their business activities or to reach to the mosque in  Gulshan Dadan Khan. The speeding traffic does not allow any pedestrian to cross the road unless there is a traffic signal, underpass or overhead bridge to help them.

IJP Road, which caters to the needs of trucks bringing merchandise to the city, is in worst shape and the Metro project construction has put more burden on it. Not only this, the road not only requires immediate blacktopping but also massive expansion to four lanes on both sides. There is also a need is to bifurcate a lane for trucks which cause more damage to the road due to heavy loads.