September 14, 2003

Barring a few glitches, Lahore’s new transport mechanism is about commuter convenience

KAMRAN Gulzar, a twenty-year-old student from Lahore, has been using the wagon to commute from Thokar Niaz Beg to the Secretariat on Mall Road for the past few years. Recently, however, he has started taking the bus and has found it to be not only more spacious and comfortable to sit in, but also easier on the pocket.

“The wagon walas ask for much more money,” said Kamran, “and they are not answerable to anyone. They say the price of diesel has gone up and you have to pay; you don’t have any choice.”

The buses, however, he said, have a standard fare, so one knows exactly how much money one will be spending on transportation every month.

This is just one of the ways where there has been more standardization in the transport system of Lahore. There has been a marked transformation in the past five years, with the replacement of the PRTC buses, that were falling apart at the seams and downright dangerous to drive, with sleeker, faster, more comfortable buses belonging to private companies.

The idea behind this overhaul was to provide a modern system of mass public transit, operated through a franchise basis by big, private companies. The need for good quality, modern, environment friendly, efficient and safe buses, was felt in 1998. But most importantly, the need to address the chaotic wagon culture was a primary concern, because of the road behaviour of the wagon drivers, the number of accidents caused by hit-and-run wagons and the way the passengers were treated and stuffed into the vans like herds of animals.

Dr Ghulam Abbas Anjum, advisor to the Transport Department and to several private bus companies, is documenting the history of the transport system in Punjab. Also a professor at the University of Engineering and Technology, he explained how to make the transport system more efficient. The then government in 1998 introduced a new policy, the Urban Franchise Scheme, which led to the influx of private companies investing in fleets of buses.

“One bus can carry the load of five wagons,” said Dr Anjum, “which leads to road space management, driver manoeuvrability and safer driving.”

The government advertised for investment in this sector and was approached by several companies, most of whom left after the nuclear tests of May 1998. Some, however, stayed on and were given incentives to start investing. Some of the incentives included in the package were subsidized on the mark-up of loan, space for parking on nominal lease rental and exclusive right to the operation on one given route. Thus, the new buses started operating in Lahore.

The city’s two largest companies, Daewoo and New Khan, now effectively run 70 and 260 buses on four and nine routes, respectively.

The routes of all buses start from the Railway Station and end on the outskirts of Lahore. Their usual timings are 5:30am till 10:00pm. Their fare ranges from Rs5/- to Rs12/-. The buses pick passengers from all parts of the city, from inner-Lahore to the peripheries and suburbs, carrying between 1200 to 1400 passengers per day.

Drivers for the buses are trained at special schools for at least one month. They are paid from between Rs5,000/- to Rs8,000/- per month for working eight hours a day. The qualification criterion is low and most are semi or illiterate.

While Daewoo is providing air-conditioned service in some of its metro buses, other services like New Khan and Premier, too, have been successful in capturing a market niche for themselves.

The impact of the improvement in transportation is also felt in other ways, such as the fact that the buses are environment friendly and less polluting than the fuel guzzling rickshaws, vans and wagons. They also have to complete for their route and cannot turn back like other public transport vehicles do because they have to submit their arrival and departure timings to a timekeeper at the end of their prescribed route. A bus has to be kept in perfect shape because off-roading a bus means losing approximately Rs3,500/- per day. Similarly, there cannot be too much overloading because of the prescribed number of people allowed in a bus, as compared to a wagon where there is no set limit on the number of passengers that can ride.

According to a survey carried out under his supervision by the students of UET, Lahore, 85 per cent of the passengers are satisfied with the new transport system. Women are 100 per cent satisfied, because they have separate compartments in buses and do not have to sit with males.

Passengers have shown mixed feelings towards the new transport system, with some like the young student Kamran Gulzar praising them for being efficient. Others like Rauf and Javed, visitors from Sheikhupura who were waiting for a bus for Yuhanabad on Ferozpur Road, pointing out both the good and bad points. Rauf, a 38-year-old trader, said that the one good thing about buses is that people are not treated like cattle.

“In the old system of transport, I used to feel like a burger, sandwiched between a bun,” added Javed. “The only problem with buses is that they claim to arrive and leave on time, whereas the reality is that we usually have to wait for a long time before any bus shows up.”

Complete satisfaction cannot be expected from a service that is only five years old and that needs to be improved in many areas. Most people, however, seem to be slowly adapting to the new system.

Still like any idea that is innovative and divergent from the norm, the transport overhaul also has its share of discreditors and problems. “The wagon mafia is the primary problem,” said Dr Anjum. “Buses have not been accepted by the wagon drivers or rickshaw drivers and they take up every opportunity to make a fuss about things.” As buses can pick up more passengers than a wagon, there has been dissent among the wagon drivers who feel cheated.

Another related problem, according to Dr Anjum, is that the fare of the buses are standard and passengers are usually not over charged for luggage or if fuel prices go up, unless directed by the government. The wagons, on the other hand, can charge as much as they want. This has led to some people using the bus more often than the wagon, which further agitates the wagon drivers.

The overlapping of routes is one more concern, which is expected to increase over time. Several bus companies, at one point or the other, stop at the same place, vying for passengers with wagons and rickshaws. This has created a mad drive to get to the passengers first and because wagons are faster and smaller, it gives them an edge over the bigger, heavier buses, and makes driving on roads even more dangerous for private cars and motorbikes.

Dr Ather Tahir, Secretary, Department of Transport, Government of Punjab, is aware that the transport system is far from perfect. But he also realizes that it is better than what was available to the people before 1998, in the form of broken down, dilapidated buses, using too much fuel, polluting the atmosphere and generally giving the city a run-down look.

“The wagon culture is the root of corruption, accidents and mayhem, with untrained drivers and lack of discipline”, said Dr Tahir. “We felt the need to change the culture of commuting in Lahore and believe that this new system is growing from strength to strength. With every step taken to change and improve something, there is opposition.”

He quoted the example of the wagon drivers going to the Rawalpindi high court with their case, where the decision of the courts was in the favour of the Transport Department. While wagon drivers provide a meritorious service to the city, said the Secretary, they need to adapt to the new system and become a part of it, or face being phased out slowly by the buses.

Tahir feels that the problem of the exclusivity of routes is something that is inevitable and zoning of routes cannot be done completely as most buses would overlap each other at some road or the other. “There is a 25-30 per cent overlap permitted,” said the Secretary.

The recent introduction of double-decker buses in Lahore, after a gap of almost twenty-five years, is also an accomplishment of this department. The double-decker is more efficient, cost-effective, has more capacity and consumes less fuel. The double-decker, whose twelve buses are currently running in Lahore on chosen routes, were test driven three months before their inauguration so as to see how conducive it was to run them on Pakistani roads.

Secretary Tahir responded to the question of double-decker bus owners in Karachi threatening the Sind government with moving to Punjab, because they were being offered better incentives here, that the Punjab government has to face these hollow threats all the time, and that he would not put too much importance to these claims.

He proposes the formation of an Integrated Transport Agency, which should head all these departments so that everything is synchronized and can be dealt with effectively.

“The Transport Department is blamed for everything, despite the fact that we do not have many duties under our jurisdiction,” said Mr Tahir. “The local government is in charge of the bus stands which are totally non-standardized to the extent that passengers do not even know where to stand and which stop is meant for which bus. The Communications and Works department is in charge of road marking, which is completely different in each city of the province. The traffic police works independently, the Environment Control Department has its own set up. Similarly, eight different agencies of the government are performing the task that the Transport Department is meant to perform, and which it does perform all over the world. We get the blame for everything that goes wrong, while we have nothing in our control.”

Despite the hurdles that are inevitably a part of every new venture, the merits seem to overshadow the problems of the new transportation system, with most passengers seeming satisfied with the quality of service being provided to them.

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