Islamabad Traffic Police has closed the road from Rawal Dam Chowk towards Serena Hotel until further notice. Announced in the early hours of 4 November, the decision affects a busy stretch in the south-east of the capital. It comes as construction work continues on the Kashmir Chowk underpass nearby. Commuters who normally use this route must change their plans for now, because the affected direction is shut completely.
The closed stretch is the carriageway carrying vehicles from Rawal Dam Chowk towards Serena Hotel, and the closure took effect from 3 November. The reason given is construction work on the Kashmir Chowk underpass. The police have not announced a reopening date. The advisory makes clear that the restriction will remain until a fresh announcement is made. Treat the diversion as the normal route for now.
Traffic in the opposite direction has not been stopped. Vehicles travelling from Kashmir Chowk towards Rawal Dam Chowk and Faizabad will continue to move as usual. That distinction matters for anyone planning a journey through the area, because only one side of the movement has been cut off. Drivers heading towards Serena Hotel must use the alternative routes set out by the police. Those routes will add time to journeys, particularly during the morning and evening rush.
The closure is the latest stage in a disruption that has been building for weeks around Kashmir Chowk, one of the capital’s most heavily used intersections. The Capital Development Authority estimates that around 107,000 vehicles pass through it every day. Even a partial restriction therefore has a wide effect, pushing vehicles onto surrounding roads and slowing movement across a much larger part of the city.
The underpass project behind the closure has been moving quickly. Reports in late October put the scheme at about 51 per cent complete, at a cost of around Rs1.4 billion. The authorities were said to be aiming to finish it around the first week of November under a fast-track schedule. None of that is a confirmed reopening date for this road. It does explain why the disruption is happening now: the work has reached a stage where the road must be kept clear.
Once finished, the underpass should separate through traffic from vehicles using the surface road. That would ease pressure on a junction handling traffic between Islamabad and Rawalpindi as well as local traffic towards Murree, Bhara Kahu, Park Road and Lehtrar Road. The planned design includes dedicated underpasses for traffic from the Serena and Faizabad sides towards Murree, plus four slip roads around the junction. Longer-distance traffic would pass underneath while local traffic continues above, reducing queues at the surface crossing.
This is not the first time motorists here have had to adjust. The road between Rawal Dam Chowk and Kashmir Chowk was closed from 15 October until further notice. Further closures followed on 24 and 25 October, when the roads from Rawal Dam Chowk to Kashmir Chowk and from Serena Hotel to Kashmir Chowk were both shut completely for two days. Kashmir Chowk itself was then closed from 25 October until further orders.
Alternative Routes
For the current closure, the police have set out two main alternative routes. Commuters travelling from Aabpara to Rawal Dam Chowk and Park Road should use Garden Avenue and Shakarparian Road. Traffic heading from Park Road and Faizabad towards Aabpara and Bhara Kahu should use Garden Avenue, Seventh Avenue and Srinagar Highway, a wider loop around the affected area. Drivers should follow these routes in full rather than cutting across side streets, because surrounding roads are already carrying diverted traffic.
Leave 20 to 25 Minutes Early
The Chief Traffic Officer has advised citizens to leave 20 to 25 minutes earlier than usual while the closure is in force. That advice has appeared in almost every advisory for this junction. It reflects a realistic expectation, not a mere precaution: diverted traffic takes longer, alternative routes are busier than usual, and junctions along those routes can become congested at peak times. For school runs, office commutes and trips to hospitals or government offices, setting out earlier is the simplest way to avoid being caught out.
Traffic officers will be present on the roads to guide commuters, and drivers are asked to follow their instructions at diversion points. Further updates will be shared on the traffic police’s FM 92.4 radio channel and on Islamabad Police’s social media pages. Travellers should check for a fresh advisory before setting out.
The broader lesson is familiar for Islamabad’s commuters: one junction can shape travel across a wide area, and a project meant to ease congestion in the long term almost always creates disruption in the short term. The underpass, if completed close to its fast-track timetable, should eventually make the Kashmir Chowk crossing smoother for the tens of thousands of vehicles using it each day. Until then, the practical answer is straightforward: use the published diversions, leave earlier than usual, listen to the officers on the road, and treat the closure as open-ended until the police say otherwise.
