Today’s tirade is about the Gizri flyover. This flyover has been under construction since God-knows-when…. actually since over the past two and a half years. In this meantime, CDGK started and finished about a gagillion flyovers all over the city. Whereas, the DHA and the Cantonment board… slowly and steadily… kept hammering away at their only masterpiece – the Gizri flyover.

Since it falls on my daily route, I had been wishing and hoping that it would be opened soon so it could help the bottleneck that is the Punjab-chowrangi to Altamash hospital road, and then lo and behold — it seemed like the flyover had been completed by November. However, only now did the long wait for its final opening started. Maybe the DHA was waiting for some Big Thing to come open it, however that never materialized and we kept on waiting and waiting and waiting.

Suddenly, like a nuclear bomb, there was news in DAWN one fine morning that the Sindh High Court slapped some notices on to the authrities responsible for the flyover (read the story here). The very next day, the flyover had been opened. Take THAT DHA! There seems to be still a lot of commentary going on about whether this flyover was necessary or not or whether it could have been redesigned, and lots of old hags ragging on and on about hating this flyover, however, if you are a regular user of this road and live anywhere around the DHA area, or even if you are just looking for a bypass for the punjab-chowrangi to Altamash hospital bottleneck, you would have really breathed a sigh of relief.

Going up on this flyover, I literally feel like I have left my troubles behind. All the traffic jams and nightmares seem to evaporate into oblivion as I glide my way above the congested buildings of Gizri. Below it seems like a battlefield. Still alive with noise and dust kicking up into the air. I fly over it and descend smoothly at the Saudi embassy intersection. All my traffic woes (well at least the major ones), left for posterity. This is one GOOD GOOD GOOD work done. And one which was utterly necessary. However, why is it necessary to wait so long for good things to happen from DHA?

End note:

Even though this flyover is complete and is an absolute relief in terms of traffic issues, a lot of things about it are still FAR from complete. DHA still needs to get their a$$es moving fast and finish out the levelling and carpeting of the side roads under and beneath the flyover. Those side roads still have a lot of utility with a major hardware market being located there, and its destroyed condition is really a big headache still for Gizri residents and DHA residents who pass by there everyday. Also, now there is a big chance that major traffic congestion will start occurring at the Saudi Embassy intersection. How about building an underpass there too?

More photographs of police blocking access to Korangi via Kh-e-ittehad. Riots have broken out as a result of frustration caused by failing civil utilities. No water in the area for the past four days (at least). More later.

police blocking kh-e-ittehad

police redirecting traffic

Time: 430pm

I got these photographs just after the firing took place in the Ph2 and Korangi area, close to the main Defence roundabout. The incident took place between 345pm and 4pm where shots were fired. Rangers immediately appeared on the scene and have blocked Kh-e-Ittehad. Traffic around the DHA area is completely jammed.