RAWALPINDI: Raja Bazaar has been turned into a vehicle-free zone from Fawara Chowk to Hamilton Road, commonly known as Dingi Khoi, and a beautification plan is being prepared to enhance the beauty of the area and provide better facilities to the citizens.

A survey will be launched today for moving electricity, telephone, and other utility lines underground on the 350-meter road. The beautification plan would be launched after the wires were moved underground.

Commissioner Amir Khattak chaired a meeting in this regard and directed all departments to strengthen coordination to complete the project in a stipulated period.

Commissioner Khattak said that underground wiring would save the citizensfrom the risks of any incident and also restore beauty. Senior officials of district administration and the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and Iesco, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Wasa, and the PTCL attended the meeting held at the Commissioner`s office.

During the meeting, the RMC officials briefed the commissioner about the progress of the project. He said that the utility lines were being moved underground from Fawara Chowk to Hamilton Road. Under this scheme, a specific route for traffic had been closed so that there was no obstacle to the work. It has also been decided to build a model market in the area, which will be equipped with modern facilities.

A senior official told Dawn that Raja Bazaar had been declared a pedestrian street and it would be turned into a model bazaar in the garrison city. He said that the district administration, the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), the RMC, and the traffic police had started working on the beautification project.

`In the first phase, Raja Bazaar will be closed for vehicle movement from morning to night, and all the Suzuki vans and Chingchi rickshaws will not be allowed to enter the 350-metre road. In the secondphase, the traffic police will control the traffic congestion, and in the third phase, all electricity and telephone and cable lines will be moved underground,` he said.

He claimed four parking sites had been established, which included the Fawara Chowk Parking Plaza, old offices of the RMC, Namak Mandi, and near the Gunjmandi Police Station on the bank of Leh Nullah.

RMC Chief Municipal Officer Ali Imran told Dawn that the beautification plan had been prepared and Rs140 million had been allocated for the beautification of the road from Fawara Chowk to Hamilton Road. He said the utility companies would share their estimate about moving lines under the ground next week. `The survey of the road will be held on Monday, and they will give their cost next week,` he said.

He further said gates would be installed at the entry and exit points of the road and tuff tiles would also be installed, besides benches and streetlights. He said the road would open to traffic after 10pm to allow traders to load and unload their goods. He said that the flowerbeds and green belts would be installed by the Parks and Horticulture Authority, adding that Fawara Chowk would also be recon-structed.

Over the last six months, the district administration had cleared all roads in the Raja Bazaar area of temporary and permanent encroachments.

A senior district official told Dawn that there was a dire need for an anti-encroachment drive in the city areas as CCTV cameras were being installed in the city for surveillance and the presence of sheds and dangling wires obstructed their vision.

On the other hand, trader leader Sharjeel Mir expressed resentment and said that all the wholesale markets located on this road, such as Narankari Bazaar (grocery), Mughal Serai (cloth market), Madina and Makkah Markets (garments), Namak Mandi (spices), and Mochi Bazaar (steel and construction material).

`If vehicles are not allowed to enter, then how will people load and unload their goods from morning to evening,` he asked, adding shopkeepers from Jhelum to Kashmir mostly visited this area to purchase goods for their shops and the new project would create difficulties for them.

He said that a meeting of all the trader associations had been called to chalk out a plan to resist the plan to turn Raja Bazaar into a pedestrian street.