SHARJAH The endless problem of long tailbacks and chaotic traffic congestion in Sharjah’s Al Nahda area is driving motorists up the wall once again.
“This may be a long-standing issue, but it cripples us every single day and the situation has only worsened over the years,” says Indian Jerry Varghese, who claims negotiating the roughly 800-metre Al Nahda overbridge on his way home takes him 30-40 minutes on an average these days, twice what he took a year ago. “Sometimes it gets so frustrating that you just feel like dumping your car and walking back home. That you know would be much quicker.”
No other way
Police units are often present to manage the flow of traffic and break the gridlock on the busy interchange, yet motorists say the bridge remains clogged during rush hour on weekdays.
The bridge that connects Al Nahda Park and Al Nahda Street has only one lane in each direction that motorists use to enter and exit the bustling neighbourhood that’s home to a sizeable expat population. What adds to the problems is that it is also the only access and exit route for visitors to Sahara Centre, a popular shopping mall on Sharjah’s border with Dubai that recently opened an extension.
“It doesn’t get any better for people like us on weekends when we are often stuck for hours just to reach the mall and unfortunately there’s no other way to access,” says Aboud Bashour, a Syrian businessman who lives in the Al Tawuun area.
Motorists say one more reason why the area remains clogged most evenings is because vehicles try to make a U-turn at the foot of the bridge near Al Nahda Park. They say traffic from the bridge and the adjacent lanes merges into a chaotic single lane, crawling to enter the only U-turn, adding to massive tailbacks and a huge bottleneck.
Pakistani Ayesha Malik who leaves her Al Nahda home every morning at 6 for work in Dubai, says the jam gets worse in the mornings when the police close this U-turn. “You would think you have a headstart at that hour of the day, but the reality is that traffic is at its worst then and it doesn’t help when the police block the use of the bridge in order to prevent U-turns. The entire Al Nahda area is jampacked as a result,” says the English teacher at a school in Garhoud.
Some residents have called for traffic signals to be installed to ease the situation.
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