It is already known that Mayor Mohammad Hanif Flyover has been adding to the afflictions of the daily commuters and ordinary passengers for quite some time. Ever since it was opened to traffic in 2013, this flyover has failed miserably to live up to its expectations. What is new is that this flyover nowadays has been dealing heavy blow to regular maintenance of traffic not only on the flyover but also in the adjacent areas.
According to some media reports published recently, traffic congestion on Hanif flyover has become a daily issue. Though it is supposed to take only 10 minutes to cross this 10.6 km long flyover, but it takes one to one and a half hours now to cross the flyover. What is more appalling is that heavy traffic on the flyover results in congestion in the surrounding areas as well, aggravating traffic situation throughout the capital.
Even people commuting under the flyover have to face intolerable situation owing to recurring congestions caused mainly due to dilapidated roads, unauthorised structures and bus parking under the flyover, pointing to a poor management and maintenance. The authorities concerned must take immediate steps to do the needful that will help take the edge off the public sufferings.
The bigger concern in this connection is not the flyover itself, rather the short-sighted development strategies that only add more sufferings to the public instead of decreasing it. Not only the Hanif flyover, but many other flyovers built throughout the capital have been contributing to increasing traffic jam. Experts have voiced concerns from time to time about the futility of such flyovers to mitigate traffic woes. In fact, many other infrastructurally developed countries like Thailand are dismantling flyover because of its inefficacy. Then, why are we walking backwards?   
Often it is seen that development plans initially designed to ease sufferings of the masses turn out to be a reason for new suffering within the difference of a few years. This happens owing to some serious flaws in the implementation plan. Development plans are often taken without proper feasibility study. This needs to be stopped. If development initiatives are taken only after paying scrupulous attention to details, many such infrastructural developments could benefit people in multi-faceted ways. Otherwise, only public money will go down the drain, but it will not yield anything good for the citizens.