KARACHI: Transport projects of city govt in doldrums
KARACHI, Oct 27: All the projects launched by the city government to improve the transport culture have come to a standstill and no headway has been made to remove obstacles hindering smooth implementation on these plans.
Different projects including Urban Transport Scheme, construction of bus terminal, commercial driving training institute and road safety campaign have been pending for many months.
The UTS, which was launched with tall claims to introduce commuter-friendly public transport system two years ago, has so far succeeded to brought 28 buses only against the claim of 5,000 buses.
An official of transport and communication department said that the provincial government had not handed over the defunct KTC bus terminals so far, which was decided by the Sindh Cabinet in 2001. He said bureaucracy in provincial government did not want this plan to succeed, for which obstacles were being created in the implementation of this project.
He pointed out that some officials of city government were also least concerned with the success of this plan. The open land possessed by the city government was not being handed over to bus operators, he added.
The official said that buses of a few companies were ready to operate in the city. However, he said that owing to the non- availability of depots these buses were standing in the workshops.
It may be mentioned here that 11 companies had quit the scheme out of 14 pre-qualified firms when the scheme was first launched. The city government had to invite the parties again in August this year.
The construction of bus terminals both for inter-city and intra-city buses is also lingering on, as no work has been carried out after the refusal of city government to hand over its land at Sohrab goth.
Moreover, the driving institute located in SITE, which was proposed for the training of commercial vehicle drivers, has not been handed over to the city government. The related summary has been lying with the provincial transport department for the last two years.
According to the official, a number of letters had been written to the provincial government in this regard, however, the high-ups of provincial transport department were least concerned to take action in this regard.
The road safety campaign, designed to create awareness among the masses about traffic rules, has yet to be launched as the posters, banners and other stuff were lying in printing press of the city government for the last few months.
The city government’s printing press has withheld printing of these posters for unknown reasons and did not give positive response when approached.
If the matters were not resolved, an official concerned cautioned that all the efforts would prove futile and hinted that some vested interest were also involved in delay of these projects. —PPI
