KARACHI, Oct 2: The campaign launched by traffic police in Karachi on September 1 to discipline bike riders, particularly to force them to comply with the rules relating to helmet-wearing, seems to have waned.
It has been observed that the sale of helmets in different markets has registered a sharp decline over the past week.
At Akbar Road, one of the main centres of trading in bike and related accessories, the helmet sale has come down to 20-30 per cent as compared to per day volume of business in the first week of this month.
Dealers have been attributing the drop in the sales of helmet to the softened attitude of traffic police in the campaign against defiant bikers.
One reason may be that most of two-wheeler owners have now purchased helmet but the situation on roads does not verify idea. Those monitoring the situation also put conflicting estimates. Some say that up to 70 per cent bike-riders have started wearing helmets while driving while some other put the estimate at less than 50 per cent.
The Akbar Road market, where there had been hustle and bustle until a few days back as people thronged it to fetch helmet, is now experiencing a considerable decrease in the flow of potential helmet buyers. In other words, the helmet market has returned to its normal pre-Sept 1 position.
As far as the campaign is concerned, it has been observed that it has lost force. Traffic police – senior officers, junior officers and constables – all were visibly discharging their duties in the first two weeks of the campaign. They would stop almost every passing bike rider without a helmet to punish him, but quite a few personnel are now seen doing this job.
DIG Traffic Falak Khurshid, when asked to comment, said that the campaign had lost force because the traffic police had now undertaken the job of chalking out a strategy for traffic control during the holy month of Ramazan. Besides, he pointed out, rains in the city was also a contributing factor.
“We have the same work force for different tasks, implementation of the rule relating to helmet-wearing being one of them,” he said in this context, adding that the ongoing campaign might wane further in Ramazan, he added.
However, he said, as many as 50,000 bikers defying the rule had been fined and a total of Rs2.5 million had been recovered from them as fine during the campaign.
“I am sure that 50 per cent bikers now wear helmet while driving as compared to five per cent until September 1,” he claimed.
President of the Karachi Motorcycle Dealers Association (KMDA) M. Naeem Qureishi said: “The traffic department has not been running the campaign in that harsh manner they had launched it,” he said.
He also denied that helmet prices been increased amid the campaign, saying that the prices remained stable due to surplus supplies of local and imported helmets.
Owing to the growing demand of helmet earlier this month, many vending stalls offering helmets of Chinese and Iranian origin had emerged on various roads. However, they are also hit by the decline in helmet sales.
