KARACHI, July 23: After the tragic demise of ambitious public transport programme of Karachi Circular Railway, our planners pinned all hopes on the road transport.
Terming introduction of minibuses a ‘tactical mistake’, majority of experts say that the solution to chronic public transport issue would be based on introduction of wide-bodied CNG-run buses. This issue has been tossed for the last half decade without any spectacular achievement and that is why some citizens see it as a hope while others just hype.
The last city government administration could rightly be called the pioneer of giving Karachi wide-bodies CNG-run buses as well as Urban Transport System (UTS) in the year 2001.
The transport and communication department of city government some half a decade back had invited bids for operating CNG-run buses with special operating subsidies like sales and import duty exemptions and concessions for installing CNG refuelling stations. It also planned converting half of existing city buses on CNG.
Niamatullah Khan had envisaged bringing some 10,000 environment-friendly CNG buses in Karachi in two phases and vowed to provide all possible facilities to companies and transporters bringing in these buses.
In the first phase, work was started on bringing in 500 CNG buses. The federal government was persuaded to waive off import duty and sales taxes on the import of these buses as a special case. His administration also offered various incentives under UTS for transporters, including subsidy on loan mark-up at the rate of 6 per cent on non-air-conditioned large-sized buses and at 9 per cent on large-sized air-conditioned buses.
Reports suggest that more than 300 such buses were brought on roads. These UTS and Karachi Public Transport Scheme (KPTS) buses included 32 air-conditioned long buses of Sweden Bus Company, 28 air-conditioned buses of Green Bus Company, 30 non-AC buses of World Wide Enterprises, 30 non-AC buses of Allied Bus Service, 28 non-AC buses of the Green Bus Company and 197 non-AC buses of Metro Bus Service.
Within a couple of years, some 40 per cent buses of UTS routes had been shifted from Karachi to other locations due to lack of attention on the part of authorities concerned and the package of 500 UTS buses was put on the back burner.
When the city government witnessed change of guards last year, Syed Mustafa Kamal brought his own vision regarding solving messy issue of public transport system in Karachi. His plan also included gradual phasing out of worn-out buses and ultimately getting them replaced with 8,000 new CNG buses in the next four years. According to his plan, the first fleet of these 8,000 new CNG buses would reach Karachi by the end of this year.
It was announced that the federal government was offering assistance in the form of Rs4 billion to help the local transporters to get these buses imported at subsidized rates.
The city government in its budget for the current fiscal earmarked Rs500 million to conduct a detailed study on environment-friendly public transport system for Karachi under private-public partnership. The officials express hope that in the next four years the metropolis would finally get rid of atmospheric pollution caused by smoke emitting old vehicles, which would be replaced with 8,000 CNG buses. The present city government also requested the federal government to waive duty on the import of reconditioned buses as an incentive to transporters.
The public transport issue is one of thorniest problems faced by the people of Karachi. This mega city with estimated population of 15 million requires thousands of wide-bodies buses to cater needs of its five million plus commuters.
The agonising paralysis of the Karachi Circular Railway coupled with acute shortage of wide-bodied buses is the main reason behind throngs of commuters awaiting public transport at every bus stop in the city.
According to the present government statements, some 40 passengers vie for a single bus seat in Karachi. That is why one sees hordes of commuters travelling on roofs of buses and minibuses, or clinging to their doors and footboards. No one could even imagine these appalling scenes in other mega cities of the world or even region.
It is a welcome step of City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal to give Karachi 8,000 new CNG buses in four years, but the fate of 10,000 CNG bus package of ex-nazim Niamatullah Khan reminds the pitfalls ahead.
It is now an open secrete that some companies in past enjoyed government concessions and bank financing for introduction of CNG buses just to hoodwink authorities as well as citizens. They failed to pay back loan instalments of financing institutions and shifted major portion of their fleets outside Karachi, by sheer breach of contract. As a result, many of their buses were confiscated by banks, which was a major setback to the whole UTS idea.
Keeping these facts under consideration, legal experts of the city government would have to work overtime for devising foolproof terms and condition by carefully observing small prints.
The commuters need a visible relief on emergency basis and to provide this the concerned officials in policy and decision-making circles have to work hard. Only their dedication, sincerity and commitment could turn the ambitious plan of new CNG buses into a hope and silence those critics who see it as a political hype.—PPI
