KARACHI, Aug 17: The city transporters have complained that the dug up and dilapidated roads further devastated by the ongoing rains have caused manifold increase in waste of fuel and at least 50 per cent decline in the mobility of public transport.

“The buses, coaches and minibuses used to make at least four to five trips a day at their specified routes previously but now they can hardly make two trips a day for being stuck up at numerous points due to severe traffic jams or for wandering in side lanes and streets searching way to their destination,” Syed Irshad Hussain Bukhari, Syed Mehmood Afridi, president and general secretary, respectively of Karachi Transport Ittehad, said in a statement on Thursday.

It takes eight to ten hours at least to complete a trip, which consumes 50 per cent more fuel added by loss of income at same ratio, they contended.

“This all was the result of ill-planning by the concerned authorities, who in a haste dug up all the small and big roads simultaneously and also failed to make arrangements for the draining of rainwater,” they said.

The rains have also exposed the performance of the civic agencies, which had claimed that international standards were followed in the construction of certain roads. These roads have caved in at a number of places and the rainwater has accumulated there, the transport leaders lamented.

The KTI leaders appealed to the authorities to take serious note of the situation and take remedial measures especially at the roads where traffic mess due to potholes, craters, digging and ongoing construction has become a routine. They also held traffic police responsible for such a situation.—PPI