KARACHI: Overcrowding ban fails as police, city govt quibble: Drive against coaches
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, Nov 14: A campaign launched by the city administration and the traffic police to make the coach operators travel with only as many passengers as the number of seats has ended without success, providing no relief to commuters.
Officials attributed the failure of the campaign to the conflicting stands taken by the officials of the city administration and the traffic police which ultimately benefited the transport operators and rendered the campaign ineffective.
Sources told Dawn that a dispute had arisen between the officials of the two departments when the transport operators had been on the point of abandoning their illegitimate demands.
Ever since the launch of the campaign on Oct 27, the coach operators started alleging that the drive was initiated by the traffic police to victimize them.
On the other hand, the traffic police claimed that they would fine those transport operators who travelled with more passengers than the seating capacity of their vehicles.
Coaches were introduced some eight years ago with the condition that they would travel with as many passengers as the number of seats. Air-conditioners were also fitted in the coaches. Brand-new coaches were given out on soft instalments under the prime minister’s yellow-cab scheme. The fare of the coaches was fixed higher than of those being charged by the mini-buses just because of the seat-by-seat travelling proviso. The Metrobuses have been introduced on the same pattern which have still been practising seat-by-seat arrangements and providing relief to the commuters.
It has been observed that the coach operators have not only abandoned the practice of running air-conditioners but they also travel with more passengers than the seating capacity of their vehicles. The fare of the coaches remains higher than of those the mini-buses.
Although it was difficult to rein in the transport mafia, the traffic police in the city dared launch a campaign against the operators of the coaches.
The traffic police forced the coach operators to travel with only as many passengers as the number of seats. The campaign, initiated on Oct 27, lasted five days. The traffic police challaned 3,487 coach drivers for taking passengers beyond the seating capacity and collected Rs348,700 during five days.
The city government was in favour of the campaign.
Dawn learnt that there had been a split among the transport operators. The operators of the mini-buses had been happy as they had been exempted from carrying passengers on a seat-by-seat basis. The campaign against the coaches had increased the number of passengers in minibuses.
The traffic police forced the coach operators to either take the passengers on a seat-by-seat basis or lower the fare so as to remove the difference between the fares of the minibuses and the coaches.
A series of meetings was held between the transport operators, officials of the traffic police and the city administration. The representatives of the city government attended some of the meetings.
However, at the meeting where officials of the city administration, city transport department, and representatives of the transport operators were present, the city administration turned down the proposal of the traffic police that the fare of the coaches and the minibuses should be the same when they were providing the same facility.
A senior official in the city administration argued that the fare structure should not be touched and other measures should be taken. The traffic police insisted that the fare of the coaches be lowered which resulted in the dispute between the government officials. The transport operators, in the meantime, threatened the government with a strike call. The city administration asked the traffic police to abandon the campaign against the coach operators as it could create law and order situation. In this way the campaign came to nought.
