Re: Observations in Lahore....
Ok, let's do a comparison from 80's to early 90's vs now:
1- if you had traveled along side nehar, they have underpasses there now which is a major thing in terms of controlling traffic. with population explosion in Lahore if we didn't have those underpasses, we'd be fk'ed.
2- GaRhi shah bridge -- if you remember even in 80's it was "expired" and was a threat. The way political situation has been I don't think there was ever any hope to build a new one. Check it out now. We've got a new one it was built in record time. I does look a little narrower I think but I think it's a good thing it's a divider now.
3- Bridge from Gulburg to Defense -- I have seen the traffic in that area on daily basis. It's still a b*tch but without that bridge your best bet is to walk or send smoke signals instead of commuting.
4- The highway around airport areas -- I don't remember its name but once someone gave me ride and we went from that side to Sadar/mughalpura area -- the road and the intersections there looked like I was in some US town highway--it was pretty wide and clean.
5- New Airport looks better -- although airport in its entirety is a negative point. They friggin' spent so much money on it and only made 6 runways so # or airlines serving Lahore is still pretty limited. We expats still don't get friggin' direct flights to Lahore from US other than PIA so we're pretty much screwed and stuck with PIA.
6- Shaad Bagh area/behind railway station area / misri shah area - I remember the amount of water you could see when it'd rain. to my surprise some of the main roads there were newer and well kept (I didn't see all of them).
7- Bypass/road going from gulburg to smanabad/shah jamal area - that bypass is also new and there is even an entrance to motorway from there.
8- Johar town area -- for once a new development has better planning. They still need some better roads but road going from johar town yateem khana etc is quite wide and highway like
9- I already mentioned jail road, farozpur road etc. They were in pretty good condition even back in early 90's but with addition of bypasses things are better compared to what they could be.
10- Big improvements in preserving cultural heritage -- two new food markets in past 10 years with historic buildings preservation along side of mall and anarkali areas -- there is definitely an awareness there to keep the old culture and buildings.
11- GT Road and Link Road that serve Baghbanpura and Mughalpura areas are petty good and wider than before. They even demolished a so called mizaar that was sorta right in the middle of GT road to make room for wider road there. It was nice to see lesser encroachments on GT road now. Link road is pretty well kept.
12- I went to Wahga border last time I was in Pak, actually to pick ChannMahi who visited me in Lahore when I was there...along side I saw construction going on for the road to wahga. If they'd actually build that road, it will be pretty wide and convenient. I just think it's gonna take a long while now.
I'm sure I'm missing quite a lot of stuff. But the point is not only these are "improvements" but think in terms of how things are in Pakistan and then imagine how all the roads/bridges would be from 80's till now...I'm sure most of these roads would have been deteriorated by now if not improved or rebuilt.