9th Avenue shows signs of wear, needs repair, Source

ISLAMABAD, July 22: Federal capital’s one of the most important roads, 9th Avenue, is worse for wear due to which not only traveling on the road is becoming uncomfortable but the walls and rocks put in place to enhance its beauty are also falling down.

Eight-kilometre-long road was constructed with the cost of Rs 1.68 billion and inaugurated on February 24, 2008. It is the only road of the city half of which was made of coal tar and the rest of concrete, Dawn has learnt.

According to sources, the dilapidated road is carrying nearly half of the load of Islamabad Highway because most of the residents of Rawalpindi use 9th Avenue to go to Blue Area and Pak Secretariat. On it, there are only two signals one at Peshawar Mor and the other at Jinnah Avenue.

Mohammad Bilal, who works in a semi-government department and uses the road every day, said that with the passage of time the road had been de-shaped and it was not as comfortable as it used to be at the time of inauguration.

“At so many places, the road has been de-shaped because heavy traffic including trucks and containers ply on it. Under the bridges, iron shade on water channels had also been broken and they could become a reason of accident any times,” he warned.

Another citizen, Mukhtar Ahmed, said that to enhance the beauty of the road, rocks were placed at different places and walls were erected along it but unfortunately Capital Development Authority (CDA) has stopped its maintenance due to which walls had also been affected.

“Near H-9 sector, the wall made to beautify the road has been demolished which gives the impression that low quality material may have been used for its construction,” he said.

An officer of CDA requesting not to be quoted said that three companies (Latif Brothers, NPI and Macsons) constructed the road at the same time due to which there was communication gap between them.

“According to CDA record road is 600-foot wide and there is green belt of 350 feet. During its construction as many as 2,239 trees were chopped down by CDA out of which 858 were of Paper Mulberry. CDA announced that 21,336 new saplings will be planted but it does not seem that there are so many trees,” he said.

Spokesman of CDA said that Chairman CDA, Farkhand Iqbal has instructed the relevant department to repair all the roads but work of repairing will be started at the end of monsoon.

He said that it was normal that roads get de-shaped after three to four years. CDA had been planning to construct an interchange at Peshawar Mor, he added.