Islamabad Traffic Police have announced traffic diversions on Lehtrar Road near Khanna Pul from Saturday, October 31, 2026, because construction work is under way there. The diversions will stay in place until further orders, and motorists travelling through this busy corridor have been advised to follow the alternative routes set out by the police rather than using the affected stretch in the usual way. The announcement underlines how central this route has become to daily movement between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Under the diversion plan, traffic coming from Tramri Chowk, Lehtrar Road and Alipur has been directed towards Faizabad, Rawal Dam Chowk and Park Road. These roads together form the main alternative for drivers who would normally pass through the Khanna Pul section of Lehtrar Road, and the police have asked commuters to use them in full rather than cutting back onto the restricted stretch midway through their journey. Motorists travelling from Khanna Pul towards the Islamabad Expressway, meanwhile, have been advised to use Ghauri Town and Link Road as their alternative route. The two sets of directions are deliberately kept separate, so that traffic moving in different directions does not converge on the same narrow detour and create fresh congestion at a single point.
The police have also urged citizens to leave twenty to twenty-five minutes earlier than usual, a warning that reflects the reality of driving through a construction zone at peak hours. Even a well-planned diversion adds time, because traffic that normally spreads across several roads is funnelled onto fewer routes, and heavy vehicles, school traffic and office commuters reach the same junctions at roughly the same time. An extra twenty minutes at the start of a journey can therefore make the difference between arriving on time and being caught in a slow queue stretching back from a diversion point, and the advice matters most for people travelling to work, hospitals, schools and colleges, or the airport.
Traffic police officers will remain deployed along the affected routes to guide commuters and keep vehicles moving. Their presence matters because diversions on paper do not always translate neatly onto the road: drivers unfamiliar with the alternatives may hesitate at junctions, take the wrong lane, or try to rejoin the main road where barriers are in place. Officers can direct vehicles, clear bottlenecks before they grow, and respond quickly if an accident or breakdown blocks an alternative road. The department will also issue further updates through ITP FM 92.4, the traffic police radio service many Islamabad drivers use for live information about closures and congestion.
The latest announcement does not come out of nowhere. The same diversions, with the same alternative routes and the same twenty to twenty-five minute warning, were reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan in the week beginning October 26, 2026, when the construction-related restrictions were first put in place until further orders. The restatement suggests the work is continuing, and that police consider it necessary to remind drivers of the plan rather than assume everyone who used the road in late October will remember the details days later.
Khanna Pul sits at a junction of considerable importance for the twin cities. Lehtrar Road connects residential areas including Tramri, Alipur and Ghauri Town with the Islamabad Expressway, which carries traffic towards Faizabad, Rawalpindi and the wider motorway network. When this corridor is restricted, the effect reaches well beyond the construction site, because commuters from southern and eastern Islamabad, as well as those travelling in from Rawalpindi, rely on the same roads for offices, markets, schools and hospitals. A diversion that looks modest on a map can therefore add pressure to Faizabad, Rawal Dam Chowk and Park Road, all of which already carry heavy traffic at rush hour.
That wider pressure is why the police have stressed cooperation alongside the formal plan, asking drivers to follow the designated routes, cooperate with officers on duty, and not attempt to force a way through a restricted section. Such behaviour puts the driver and construction workers at risk and disrupts the flow for everyone behind them, since a single vehicle turning against the diversion can block a junction for several minutes. For residents, the practical response is to plan journeys in advance, check the alternative route before setting out, and move departure times earlier by the recommended twenty to twenty-five minutes, particularly at morning and evening peaks. Listening to ITP FM 92.4 before and during a journey will also help, as the police can update the position if work changes or an incident on an alternative route requires a further adjustment.
Until the work is complete and the police issue a fresh notification, the diversions should be treated as the normal route for this corridor, not as an inconvenience to be ignored. The October 31 announcement gives no fixed end date, and further orders will determine when normal traffic resumes. Commuters who build the diversion into their daily routine, leave earlier, and follow officers on the ground will find the disruption manageable, while the finished work should leave the road better able to carry the heavy traffic it serves every day.
