Peshawar: Transporters on Monday reduced the intra-city fare in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by six per cent due to the fresh decline in petroleum prices.

However, the transport fare within cities will remain unchanged.

The decision to this effect was made during a joint meeting of transporters and transport department officials here.

Director (transport) Manzoor Ahmad chaired the meeting during which transport fare in different districts came under discussion.

The participants decided that the fare of urban transport in Peshawar would remain the same at the rate of Rs10 from one stop to the other.

An official of the transport department said the detailed break-up of the reduction in transport fare (from one district to other) would be issued to media soon as it would be decided on basis of kilometers.

“We reduced the fare from Peshawar to different districts keeping in view the recent decrease in petrol,” Khan Zaman, president of Urban Transport Union Peshawar told Dawn.

He, however, said most transport vehicles was on CNG and since CNG price had not been reduced, the fare of such vehicles would remain the same.

Zaman said the government was forcing transporters to reduce fare but didn’t bother to check if vehicles were on CNG or petrol.

Fare within cities remain unchanged

He expressed concern about restrictions on the movement of buses and mini-buses on University Road and said security forces and police forced transporters to drop passengers at Gora Qabristan bus stop and return towards Hayatabad.

The union president said buses and mini-buses were not allowed to go to Haji Camp bus stand for unidentified reasons.

He said the police and security forces had set up new checkpoints to the inconvenience of transporters as well as passengers.

However, a police official said the restriction on buses in the cantonment area was meant to check the movement of illegal Afghan nationals for security reasons.

He said the move to check buses had been taken on Sunday and that it was likely to stay put to check the entry of terrorists.

Meanwhile, the members of Taxi Drivers and Workers Union Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday held a rally outside the Peshawar Press Club against the transport department and traffic police for banning old taxis in the city.

Union leaders Haji Noor Wali Khalil, Hazrat Shah Khalil, Rustam Khan, Samiullah and Akbar Ali told reporters that the authorities had banned the plying of the 1989-94 model taxicabs in the city in an act, which was injustice to the poor people driving them.

“The government should launch a scheme to provide new taxicabs to cabbies before asking them to dispose of old taxis,” Haji Noor said.

He said the transport department didn’t issue route permits and driving licences to taxi drivers at normal fee and exploited them through agents.

“We will begin staging demonstrations on daily basis if the department doesn’t stop teasing us,” he warned.

Haji Noor alleged that the police fined cabbies, mostly poor people, heavily for false reasons.

Published in Dawn February 3rd , 2015

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