KARACHI, May 1: A track of the recently reconstructed New M A Jinnah Road -- from Quaid’s mausoleum to Jail traffic intersection -- has literally been taken over by car showrooms, situated on either side of the road, leaving only one lane for traffic flow.

Besides, one cannot rule out the possibility of accidents involving water tankers on New M A Jinnah Road, particularly near Islamia Science College, as a large number of speeding vehicles often negotiate U-turn while proceeding to and from Muslimabad hydrant.

Frequent movement of tankers from the Muslimabad hydrant had already caused extensive damage to the road in the past.

There are in all three lanes on the newly-constructed track of the road but two of them often remain occupied by cars belonging to showrooms which have sprung up on both sides of the road.

Though the city government has, so far, reconstructed one track of the road, funds for which have been provided by the PIA under Tameer-i-Karachi Programme (TKP), two of the total three lanes are being used exclusively for parking of vehicles by showrooms.

The showroom owners, who had already grabbed both footpaths running parallel on either side of the road from Dawood College of Engineering and Technology to Jail traffic intersection have now completely occupied two of the total three lanes of the track, creating serious bottlenecks in the smooth flow of traffic.

During a visit to the road, one can see that traffic proceeding towards jail traffic intersection, often comes to a halt whenever drivers of the parked vehicles try to mingle with vehicular traffic passing through extreme right lane or proceeding towards jail traffic intersection.

Similarly, whenever drivers of buses, mini-buses or coaches stop their vehicles for lifting passengers in the middle of the lane, traffic coming from their rear side comes to a standstill.

Illegal occupation of a major portion of the road and both footpaths has been blocking movement of vehicular traffic and compelling pedestrians to walk on the busy road amid vehicular traffic and exposing them to accidents.

A motorist from Gulshan-i-Iqbal said it was beyond his comprehension why the CDGK had spent millions of rupees on the reconstruction of one track of the road when it was to be used by showroom owners.