PESHAWAR
Once known as the city of flowers, Peshawar is nowadays engulfed by a thick- smoke emanating from a tsunami of rickshaws and brick kilns, forcing the residents to inhale the polluted air.
Rather enjoying fragrance of red roses, jasmine and others seasonal flowers of spring season, Peshawarties are exposed to inhale the polluted air mostly caused by the smoke emanating from tsunami of unregistered rickshaws, taxis and wagons leading to increase in cases of ENT, cough, chest and other seasonal infections.
Even, the thick black smoke could be seen with a naked eyes by the visitors while standing on top of the Surey Pul bridge near Balahisar fort due to axing of canopy trees and bulldozing of green belts by the PTI rulers to pay way for construction of an ill-planned BRT corridor, thus causing traffic jams during peak hours.
“The wrong planning for BRT and bulldozing of green belts for its corridor by the then PTI government had aggravated air pollution and traffic jam problems in Peshawar’s Dabgari gardens, Firdus and Hastnagari,” said Riazul Haq, a former Education Department PST teacher and a resident of district Nowshera while talking to APP on Thursday.
The doctors, teachers, students and the government’s servants were also suffering to reach their respective destinations on time due to traffic jams and air pollution due to presence of dozens of bricks kilns operating in the Peshawar’s peripheries
Patients in ambulances with their blaring sirens were also being seen stranded on GT road and Sher Shah Suri road besides others link roads leading to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Dabgari gardens in the unruly traffic were adding to their mental agony and psychological problems.
“Last week, I had visited LRH for treatment and was trapped for one hour in the traffic mess at Fridus amid complaints of breath, ENT, cough and heart problems,” said Riaz Khan. “It was my worst and nerve breaking experience I had in Peshawar since my retirement a few years ago. My knees started to hurt due to excessive use of clutch and brakes while driving in a massive traffic jam,” he added.
“BRT buses are often overloaded after scrapping of old buses and wagons on its route, resultantly most of passengers in BRT have to travel from Peshawar City to Hayatabad without a seat due to shortage of buses.”
He said widening of GT road near Hastnagri and Firdus, ban on smoke emitting rickshaws and without permit taxis and increasing BRT buses would help address the problem of traffic congestion and combat air pollution.
To counter air pollution and ensure beautification of Peshawar, officials in Planning and Development Department told APP that the government expedited work on 150 beautification projects costing Rs5 billion at Hayatabad, University Road and Palosi near Peshawar Zoo and University Town to make Peshawar’s clean and neat besides make it again the city of gardens and flowers.
The official said under phase-I, work on the Rs1.22 billion beautification project was underway at Hayatabad triple bridge, Rs171 million Palosi Road, University Town besides others adjoining localities.
In phase-II, he said the government would launch work on different beautification projects worth Rs3 billion to make Peshawar again the city of flowers. Besides plantations in graveyards, motorways and GT road sides, the conditions of colonial era built parks including Wazir Bagh gardens and Shahi Bagh Peshawar were improved, attracting a large number of visitors.
Shahi Bagh had witnessed the first uplift beautification work during Awami National Party and PPP coalition government in 2009. Later on October 3, 2012, KP Government was ordered to remove all illegally built structures in premises of Shahi Bagh being a protected monument and an inclusive revival plan for Shahi Bagh was approved.
Subsequently, work on Peshawar Revival Plan was launched for the uplift of the provincial capital including restoration and face uplift of Shahi Bagh. According to the Local Government and Rural Development Department, all encroachments were removed from the historical Shahi Bagh.
Over 121.75 kanal encroached lands of Shahi Bagh were reclaimed. The reclaimed lands includes 24 kanals of Pardah Bagh and a wedding hall, 34.75 kanal land of the Funland and 63 kanal used by Traffic Police for parking of impounded vehicles and the total area of Shahi Bagh has now increased to over 205 kanal.
Out of 121.7 kanal of reclaimed land, as many as 39.75 kanal was included in Shahi Bagh and 83 kanal allocated for developing Ladies Park with all modern facilities including indoor and outdoor gyms, jogging tracks and separate playing area for children.
Old fountain tiles have been replaced with super white marble and electricity wires and motors concealed underground to enhance the beauty of the fountains.
Work on improvement of jogging track, lawns and plantations have been completed and wooden benches, dustbins and new lighting system were put in place in the park besides development of a two kilometers soft jogging trail for senior citizens.
