August 04, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 1 429

KARACHI, Aug 3: Karachi, one of the biggest cities of the world, has somewhat the smallest urban public transport because of the neglect on the part of the relevant authorities who appeared not ready to develop a surface rail network to cater to its transportation needs.

Almost every major city of the world has a viable public transport system mainly based on a railway network.

Mumbai, the fifth largest city of the world in terms of metropolitan area, has the population of around 19.2 souls and according to recent estimates, about 6.9 million people travel in local trains daily. The city’s suburban railway system has 2,342 local train services operated every day.

Karachi, the 20th largest city of the world in terms of metropolitan area, has a population of around 1.4 million souls had a small network of local trains operated under the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR). It operates only four local trains which cater to the needs of hardly a few thousand commuters.

Karachi’s metropolitan area is said to be the highest population density (people per square kilometre) in the world, according to Wikipedia ranking. Its population density is 10,727 while Tokyo, the largest metropolitan area city of the world, has the population density of 4,049. Mumbai’s population density is 8,170.

Technically, there is no reason why Karachi could not have an economically viable rail-based public transport system. The KCR, following its inauguration some 50 years ago, proved to be a profit-making institution and it maintained the status for years.

It is believed that certain lobbies protecting interests of transporters were behind the failure of the KCR. Another view holds political quarters responsible. There are certain political elements even opposing the revival of the KCR. They have been proposing introduction of “imported” public transport system for Karachi. It is a fact that a huge amount of money, including foreign exchange, has already been wasted on various feasibility studies for KCR revival over the past decade. However, neither a concrete decision has been taken nor has any solution to the public transport problem emerged as yet.

It is argued that the Pakistan Railway is fully capable to revive and expand the KCR through indigenous sources, if a green signal is given to it. But a lack of political will has jeopardized the whole affair.

Some political quarters express their concern about “non-urban trends” they believe making inroads. One of the basic reasons may be the city’s antiquated public transport system.

It is not only new roads, tall buildings, bridges and flyovers that give a city an urban look, but it is also a disciplined public transport system comprising buses, local trains, trams and cabs that make a city a truly world-class metropolis. Despite all the development works carried out and going on in the city, Karachi still has the same smoke-emitting and dangerously overloaded unruly buses and minibuses plying on its roads for several decades. Similarly, no remarkable increase in the number of local train services or modernization of the railway system has been witnessed since the country’s inception.—PPI