KARACHI, Feb 2: The City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, on Thursday said the federal government had allocated Rs5 billion for turning the transport system in Karachi environment friendly.
He said this at a workshop on ‘Public Partnership Based Environment Friendly Public Transport System for Karachi’. The event was jointly organized by the Planning and Development Commission of Pakistan, Sindh and the city government.
The nazim said the allocated amount would be utilized as a private-public sector collaborative effort during the next four years. Under the scheme, 8,000 CNG buses would be introduced in the city with the aim to prevent environmental pollution.
Addressing the event, which was attended by national and international experts, he said new technology had always been resisted because people in the field due to lack of understanding often considered it against their interest.
“Hence, in Karachi too, there are institutions and individuals who have frequently emerged as major hindrances in making public friendly improvement in the traffic system,” he lamented.
The initiative holds that deliberations and discourse with all relevant stakeholders and the city government was necessary to ensure that none of the public transporters including rickshaws, taxis, buses, and coaches (drivers and owners) felt that they were being deprived of their livelihood.
He said he was fully cognizant of the fact that thousands of people were dependent on the transport business and the city government would concentrate in improving their business on pragmatic lines with health safety provision for all.
“The local transporters themselves are extremely critical of the existent transport system in the metropolis,” he said, adding that the city government was committed to removing their grievances with all sincerity.
He said everyone needed to realize that an environment-friendly city with provisions for uninterrupted potable water supply and sound sanitation and pollution free atmosphere were prerequisites for all and required to attract investors.
Malik Zaheerul Islam, Director General, Karachi Mass Transit Cell, city government in his key note address, said the study covered the entire Karachi district encompassing the urban intra-city routes, which operate under the District Road Transport Authority (DRTA) bus route permits.
The goals and objectives included a comprehensive approach to the problems encompassing a sustainable Urban Transport System, which was responsive to passenger demand and commercially viable for the operators, he said.
The primary objectives included reviewing the existing situation and developing the concept of a mass transport system, which could meet passenger needs, while the secondary objectives were aimed at developing structures and mechanisms (including organizational, institutional and system networks) to implement and operate the system.
The DG Karachi Mass Transit Cell also referred to environmental consequences of the scheme in the context of replacing old buses with fleets of environment-friendly ones; promoting the use of CNG fuels; establishing a basis for environmental evaluation and so forth.
Mr Frits Olyslager, the Australian team leader for Environment Friendly Public Transport Project for Karachi, in his detailed presentation said the study undertook a comprehensive review of the existing situation, with particular focus on the regulatory and institutional frameworks that develop an operating and investment climate for buses and the required bus infrastructure and fuelling facilities.
He said issues related to institutional arrangements, specific constraints on the development of mass transit, traffic congestion and road developments coupled with government policies and social impacts were extensively reviewed.
It was on basis of the said review that the expert recommended the need to develop a commercially viable “business model” for the bus system, incorporating route planning and scheduling, promotion of bus rapid transit concepts and feasibility, and provision for route and infrastructure.
The expert said his team had also recommended structural reforms based on logical framework approach defining the strategic relationship between policy, organization, system management and operations.
Equal focus was also on fuel selection and technological advancements with provision for fleet management and passenger information system.
PIPE FACTORY: The city nazim on Thursday announced that the city’s pipe factory would be made fully functional, which would bring in a monthly income of Rs10 million to the city government.
He said this during a visit to the pipe factory early Thursday morning to take stock of the situation.
The nazim was informed during the briefing that Australian machinery, used the world over, was installed at the factory, and the factory with nine plants had the capacity to produce high quality RCC and pre-stressed pipes of six to 84 inches diameter.
Kamal expressing concern over that fact directed the concerned officials to take appropriate measures for making the factory fully functional. “The pipes from other factories should only be purchased in case there is a need for more pipes than that produced here.”—APP / PPI
