Resilience of Islamabad Road Infrastructure

Despite the cupidity of our monsoon showers and the surfeit of our traffic flow, the resilience of our road infrastructure should be ensured for public safety as well as comfort. The rapid population growth and concomitant increase in vehicular density is overwhelming the road infrastructure of twin cities i.e Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The weak capacity of the infrastructure is being exacerbated by a host of other factors like the absence of a reliable public transport system, poor weather resilience of the improperly designed roads, undisciplined road users, and lax traffic rules' enforcement. Due to above factors, the highways and expressways are not being able to cope up with the traffic mayhem, regardless of the peak or non peak hours. With a population rise of 2.8% for Islamabad and 2.1% for Rawalpindi between the last two censuses, the vehicular density has also increased by 300% in Rawalpindi alone. Meanwhile in Islamabad, the number of registered vehicles (1.7 million) has increased precipitously in the last five years, accounting for roughly 1 vehicle for every 1.4 people. According to an empirically researched study of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) titled, 'Assessment of Traffic Congestion and Management Issues in Islamabad Capital Territory-2022', the heavy and light vehicle flow over Islamabad Expressway based on an 11-hour projection between 10 a.m. to 9 pm at different choke points was mindboggling. From Koral Chowk to Faizabad the total number of vehicles plying daily was observed as 68002, including 63338 light vehicles and 4664 vehicles. Based on very conservative projections of annual increase of vehicular density by 10%, the increase in the number of vehicles in four years comes to a present daily influx of 88674 light vehicles and 6530 heavy vehicles. Now imagine these 6530 heavy vehicles trundling over the slippery monsoon road surface with the motorcyclists and the pedestrians milling beneath the overpasses, blocking the expressway for normal traffic amidst water flowing over the poorly designed drainage of the expressway. Between 2020 and 2024 the expressway was expanded to six lane each side, incurring huge expenditure on the project. The outcome is more congestion and ubiquitous traffic jams. The fraught security situation has resulted in the frequent VIP movement road closures and placement of traffic check posts that play daily havoc with the smooth traffic flow. The allocated strength of Islamabad Traffic Police was 696 in 2006 and remained the same till 2022 with a traffic policeman to population ratio of 1:2734 till 2021. How much that ratio has increased now is not clear despite that a massive cadre wise recruitment drive in Islamabad Police has been planned. The overstretched traffic police resources due to VIP protection duties and resource inadequacy are unable to cope up with the implacable pressure of new vehicles being added every month on the expressway. All mega cities in the world have subways or the underground mass transit system, and here we are, despite having one of the highest population and urbanization rate are not constructing an underground mass transit system. The perfect storm that has led to the diurnal traffic gridlock includes the slow pace at which the Western portion of the Rawalpindi Ring Road is being completed. The Rawalpindi Ring Road's Western loop that is under construction will not solve the problem of the traffic flow on the Islamabad Expressway as the entire traffic, including heavy trucks bound for Kashmir and Islamabad would still pass through the Islamabad Expressway. In order to alleviate the ever-increasing load of vehicular flow on the Islamabad Expressway the Eastern portion of the Ring Road connecting Banth with Barakahu is absolutely essential. Without this Eastern loop the Rawalpindi Ring Road will remain incomplete. Since all major cities in Pakistan have a complete Ring Road, Rawalpindi-Islamabad Ring Road should also be no exception. Though the expansion of the service lanes from Gulberg Greens to Faizabad is being planned the mere expansion of the Expressway or its service lanes would not resolve the problem of traffic congestion, without a robust and comfortable bulk public transport system. All mega cities in the world have subways or the underground mass transit system, and here we, despite having one of the highest population and urbanization rate are not constructing an underground mass transit system. Globally the urban planners recommend development of an underground mass transit system when the population of a metropolis exceeds one million. Since we have not even constructed an underground mass transit system in Karachi and Lahore it would be asking too much from our urban planners to venture into an underground in Rawalpindi-Islamabad, though it is highly recommended. But what is inescapable is an above surface rail mass transit system. Considering the vehicular density and passenger load on the main artery of the twin cities i.e Islamabad Expressway (Whose load is going to increase manifold after completion of Kharian-Rawalpindi motorway), it is essential to construct a rail based public transport link from Rawat to Islamabad. This rail transit system would give an affordable and environmentally clean bulk transport option to the people, alleviating traffic burden on the main artery i.e Islamabad Expressway. It is hoped that the adequate space for the 'right of way' of the Expressway is being left by the NHA for future development of such a rail transit system; because the way the entire 'right of way' is being encroached upon by the commercial projects, housing colonies, and marriage halls, there might not be any land left for the rail transit project. The existing weather and peak traffic resilience of our road infrastructure is abysmally low and that includes our Islamabad Expressway. The reasons for this lack of resilience include poor surface drainage during heavy rainfall, lack of waiting areas for public and the bus bays for the buses/pedestrians. It is a common spectacle to see the people gathered under the roofs of the over passes and interchanges using the main highway as a waiting area during the rains, with traffic police looking helpless. Another reason is the inadequately designed interchanges and overpasses, which considering their vehicular load from the connecting feeder roads are under capacity due to design flaws. Faizabad Interchange on the Expressway is one such example that needs redesigning and capacity enhancement. The Islamabad Road infrastructure needs to be made weather resilient and bottleneck proof too by improving the subterranean and surface drainage system. The past week's monsoon showers had brought the whole traffic to a grinding halt for few hours during the peak rain hours. Cities like Toronto, Moscow, Syracuse, and New York remain functional, even during the worst snowfalls due to the infrastructure resilience. We should borrow the best international practices but should find our own solutions starting with expansion of the diversion loops, improvement of engineering aspects of inner circuits (both the feeder as well as main arteries), taking the commercial encroachments away from the roads, provision of an efficient mass transit system, and an effective policing. While talking of police, the jurisdictional limits of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Motorway traffic police need to be deconflicted. How could the expressways and the highways be effectively policed when a highway stretch of even10-15 kms (Rawat to Soan Bridge Rawalpindi Pothohar Highway) is divided between three police jurisdictions i.e Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Motorway Police? The district administrations, CDA, and RDA also have to resolve their jurisdictional issues as the areas lying on the seam of these jurisdictions have no takers when it comes to traffic management. CDA, NHA, and district administrations need to be better integrated when it comes to the 'right of way' issues of the main communication arteries of the cities. It beggars belief as to why some private schools have been given permission to construct their campuses close to the main arteries like Pothohar Highway (former GT Road from Rawat to Sawan bridge) without realizing that these would create daily traffic blockades during school pick and drop timings? The rate at which our population is growing and the vehicular density is increasing we might get caught up in a perennial cycle of traffic gridlocks, even in non-peak hours. Our VIP movement and traffic check post problems also need a more imaginative solution through technology and better intelligence. At present our road infrastructure is neither weather resilient nor commuter friendly. The solution lies in proper road engineering including drainage, a complete Ring Road including Eastern loop, a mass rail transit system between Rawat and Islamabad, capacity enhancement of the interchange loops, removal of encroachments, and efficient traffic management by fully resourced traffic police. There is no short cut to our infrastructure fragility except the above steps and if ignore those, we are bound for an infrastructural rigor mortis.