The Minister, who revealed that he himself was the owner of a road transport company and a landlord (producing sugarcane) declared his personal interest in the condition of roads. He admitted that the roads in the province of Punjab were in a bad shape and pledged his determination to improve the condition of roads. He urged all road users to support the Government’s effort in preserving and improving the condition of roads in Punjab.

He informed the audience that the Provincial Government had established a Road Complaint cell headed by Deputy Secretary Highways (Rana Saeed), which will soon be provided with a website and e-mail facilities. The Minister asked all road users to provide information regarding sub-standard roads by e-mail and he guaranteed that action would be taken.

The Minister stressed that over-loading of goods vehicles was causing serious damage to the roads. Referring to the over-loaded sugarcane trollies plying on the roads of Punjab, he said that these vehicles were also a serious traffic hazard. He urged ARUP to create awareness amongst the goods vehicle owners/operators/users about the damage being caused by overloaded vehicles and the urgent need to adhere to maximum permissible axle-loads on the highways and roads of Pakistan. The Traffic Police must collaborate with the Highway authorities in enforcing the control of axle-load limitations.

The Minister pointed out that over-speeding was the major cause of accidents. This must be eradicated by careful planning and estimating journey times by road users. He suggested that ARUP should urge road users to reduce speed of their vehicles on all major roads and allow adequate time to complete each journey without the need for exceeding prescribed speed limits. His department was promoting the concept of constructing road dividers on major roads to reduce the risk of head-on collisions.

Finally, the Minister spoke about the Government’s plan to build the Faisalabad / Sheikhupura Road (which will be a dual carriageway road) in the near future. This road would be built on a BOT basis.