KARACHI, April 24: A number of air-conditioned buses introduced only recently under the city government’s Urban Transport Scheme (UTS) have been withdrawn from their allotted routes, causing inconvenience to thousands of commuters. The routes included UTS-16, UTS-17 and UTS-19.

Commuters are also experiencing inconvenience and annoyance during travel due to the UTS drivers’ practice of lifting passengers from non-designated stops and turnings of busy intersections. This hinders the flow of traffic besides irritating the passengers.

It has become a common sight that UTS buses seldom stop at certain designated stops only to keep the waiting passengers to continue to stay at the stop till the arrival of the next one, most often after 30 minutes, amid harsh weather conditions.

“Isn’t it unfair that we keep on waiting for the UTS buses at its designated bus stops even up to half-an-hour merely to have comfortable journey but the UTS bus would not stop to lift us,” an elderly man moaned.

Complaints of overcharging are also made by some commuters who claim that the practice was beyond their comprehension. The complainants say that some conductors would charge Rs10 for 10-km journey while some others Rs15 for the same distance. If someone would raise objection, the conductors indulge in arguments only to convince the passengers that they had no idea of the distance between their boarding spot and the destination.