The long standing demand of the residents of Tehkal was the construction of an underpass for them so that they could easily cross the road on which a large number of vehicles ply throughout the day. Passing the road is like a threat to the life of even a young man; more so, for the elderly, women and children.
The residents were promised and assured by the pubic representatives a number of times that a pedestrian underpass or an overhead bridge would be constructed for them. It was in 2005 when the then Nazim-e-Ala of Peshawar Haji Ghulam Ali announced the construction of an underpass at Tehkal. However, the underpass was either invisible or the project could not be started, for reasons not known.
After fighting against terrorism, floods and with the development funds frozen the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was unable to start any mega projects in Peshawar. Nonetheless, the mega projects that were started in the city are creating problems for the Peshawarites rather than giving them any relief. Ring Road reconstruction and Arbab Sikandar Khan Khalil flyover are two major examples.
Every one is now talking of the next general elections and the political parties in the province are gearing up their preparations to go into the polls by increasing their political activities. Under the pressure of all these activities, the KP government among other projects also started the project of a much needed pedestrian underpass at Tehkal. As they say it is never too late. So the long standing demand of the people of Tehkal will finally be fulfilled as the construction work on the pedestrian underpass is now in full swing. Although, the work is creating problems for the motorists however, Peshawarites are used to such hurdles in smooth traffic flow. The work will be completed in a couple of months and the underpass would be ready for the pedestrians to cross the road.
There are two major benefits of this project for the people of the area. One, they can rent out the shops built inside the underpass and start their businesses. This way the unemployed youth could get employment. Secondly, they can now easily cross the road without putting their lives in danger. But the second option will be used only if they want to. I write this because there are still a large number of people in Peshawar who prefer to put their lives in danger by crossing the road rather than using the existing underpasses. Such people are found in abundance on G.T. Road where underpasses are built near Firdous Cinema and Hashtnagri Chowk. Similarly, such people like to cross the roads by dodging the traffic instead of using the underpass in front of the main gate of University of Peshawar. It seems as if crossing the road built for cars and putting their lives at risk gives these pedestrians a high.
Now, it is up to the residents of Tehkal to take advantage of what they were demanding since long or to keep blaming the government, like every one else, for not facilitating the masses. The government should not be blamed for the cheap thrills that pedestrians get from crossing the road that is not meant for them.
