A collision involving a tanker and a bus on the M9 Motorway has laid bare serious shortcomings in the performance of the motorway police, traffic police and the Karachi administration.
Built to connect Karachi with Hyderabad, M9 has become extremely unsafe. Wrong-side driving and illegal U-turns have turned into routine practices, particularly along the stretch from Sohrab Goth to Bahria Town, making travel highly perilous.
The absence of fencing and service roads along the motorway has resulted in the emergence of numerous illegal cuts, allowing vehicles to suddenly enter the highway or drive against traffic. Beyond Sohrab Goth and Al-Asif Square, intersections have been closed without providing proper underpasses, forcing motorists to drive on the wrong side from Jamali Bridge onwards. Wrong-way traffic has also become commonplace near the New Sabzi Mandi.
Illegal bus terminals have sprung up around petrol pumps along the road, while dumpers and heavy machinery are routinely parked on the carriageway. In addition, the sand and gravel mafia has piled heaps of construction material along the motorway, narrowing the road and causing sand to accumulate on the surface. This not only disrupts traffic flow on M9 but also frequently leads to prolonged traffic jams, turning journeys of minutes into hours.
Despite these persistent violations, no surveillance cameras have been installed along the Sohrab Goth to Sabzi Mandi stretch to monitor traffic offences. This, observers say, reflects a lack of government interest in enforcing traffic laws or dismantling illegal bus terminals and unauthorised parking of dumpers along the motorway.
