KARACHI, Oct 1: The issue of public transport in Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan and seventh biggest city of the world, is getting to worse with each passing day, due to the lack of proper and timely planning of our sluggish and rustic bureaucracy.
Millions of commuters of this unfortunate city are forced to travel daily in shabby, smoke emitting buses and minibuses, stuffed in them like sheep and goat. Every day during rush hours hoards of Karachi commuters could be seen perched on roofs of minibuses or clung to their doors, amid tall claims of our high-ups of making Karachi a modern city, 'an economic and trade hub of the region'.
In fact it is the mode of public transport that determines the economic fate of any mega city, but nobody here is ready to think how a city whose commuters still travel more or less like people of the mediaeval ages could join the comity of modern and civilised urban centres.
The doom of public transport sector of Karachi started a few decades back by the abrupt closure of two extensive and reliable sources of public transport i.e. the Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC) and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).
It is widely believed that besides external factors like involvement of lending institutions, local road transport mafia also played a major role in the closure of the KTC and KCR. Now it is an open secret that after the closure of the KTC and KCR, an unchallenged monopoly of private owners of the public transport was established in Karachi at the cost of its millions of commuters.
The profit hungry private transporters fully manipulated their monopoly to make a windfall. Small timers of the yesteryears are the owners of fleets of buses and minbuses today. In every trade and business an interaction of supply and demand could be found, but the public transport of Karachi is perhaps the only example where supply did not follow ample demand. This is the reason that today more than 40 passengers vie for a single bus seat in Karachi.
The privately owned public transport sector is so powerful that the government seemed totally powerless before it. Last year, the Sindh transport department announced a 'drive' against multi-colour minibuses, but despite extending deadlines twice nothing could be achieved. Finally, the department had to hush up the matter to cover its powerlessness. Similarly, the court verdict against smoke emitting vehicles could not be implemented and was put on back burner after the mighty transporters flexed their muscles. The ambitious programme of the city government to introduce 8,000 CNG buses is still on the drawing board.
After a lot of twists and turns, finally there seemed a hope of revival of the KCR.
Some two weeks back Sindh Transport Minister Adil Siddiqui announced that the Sindh government had approved the feasibility of revival of the Karachi
Circular Railway (KCR) and it would be submitted to the federal government 'within a week'.
He said that the federal government after studying the feasibility would request the Japanese government for soft loan. The JICA has offered $827million loan for the project. For this purpose Japan would provide Pakistan loan for 30 years along with grace period of 10 years with 0.4 per cent interest rate.
The minister said that the project would be completed in three phases and its reach would be extended to Surjani, North Karachi, Airport, Gizri, Defence, Port Qasim and other areas. In the first phase the KCR would be revived from the Karachi City to Nazimabad, in the second phase from Nazimabad to Drigh Road, and in the third phase it would be extended to the airport and other areas.
The entire system of the KCR would be computerised and a separate track for it would be laid from Karachi City to Drigh Road.
The failure of road-based public transport system in Karachi during the recent heavy rains has proved once again that our policymakers could not solely rely on just one mode of public transport. Karachi, in fact, needs a multi-layered public transport system, comprised of CNG buses and minibuses, an extensive network of KCR touching city outskirts, and more importantly re-introduction of double-deckers and trams in busy downtown areas.
All busy central city areas from the Mazar-i-Quaid to Keamari and from Lyari to Lucky Star should be made a no-go area for all types of buses and minibuses, and instead double-deckers and trams should be plied extensively in these areas.
In order to solve the issue of public transport in Karachi, the cosmetic measures would not deliver, as the city required a totally changed culture in the sphere of public transport.
The bureaucratic traditional tools of meetings, committees, feasibility, and reports would only further aggravate the matter. If a prompt action is not taken now, with a solid political will and sense of urgency, the dream of making Karachi a modern, civilised and vibrant urban centre could never be materialised.—PPI
