SARA — not her real name — is a single mother of three who works as domestic help in three houses — a kilometre apart — in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Karachi. She lives in Baldia Town. Sweeping, mopping, washing, dusting, etc, are her job description. She spends around two-and-a-half hours at each place, starting out at 6am and returning home at 8pm or later. She spends seven-and-a-half hours at work and another six and a half commuting. Her work locations are close to bus and Qingqi stops. Yet, she spends an extraordinary amount of time and money on commuting. She says that the forthcoming public mobility projects won’t benefit her — as they won’t tens of thousands like her who travel from Baldia and Orangi to Gulshan and other neighbourhoods.

If one goes through the list of projects under construction in Karachi, a lot is happening, with hefty funding outlays. The BRT Red Line costs Rs103 billion; the Yellow Line Rs100bn; the Malir Express­way, under a public-private partnership, costs Rs27.5bn; the Karimabad Underpass Rs3.8bn; and road repairs Rs1.5bn — plus, there will be over 240 buses on 10 routes. This does not include other BRT lines and projects in their initial planning stages.

The rule of thumb in examining the usefulness of public spending on transport is to evaluate the number of people benefiting and locations served, plus the financial sustenance of operations. These projects, and those already completed, fare poorly on these counts. For instance, if and when all BRT lines become operational, they will cater to less than 10 per cent of total passenger trips. The only operational BRT services, the Green and Orange Lines, are partially occupied during peak hours and almost empty off-peak hours. The Orange Line marginally connects the edge of Orangi to North Nazimabad. Passengers say that local buses, minibuses and large public rickshaws serve them at half the cost, and are more convenient.

In fact, these projects might be closed down if the buses are empty. The federal government was to hand over the operations of the Green Line to the provincial government by December 2024. Once that happens, the operational and financial bu­­rden of running this service shall fall on the provincial government. The operati­ons of the Karachi Circular Railway had to be stopped in 1999 as the KCR was making losses of Rs6 million annually. Simi­larly, the erstwhile Karachi Transport Corpo­ration had to cease operations in 1996 as its losses accrued to Rs10m per month.

Not all locations in Karachi are evenly served by transport projects.

The benefit to passengers is another major concern as not all locations in Karachi are evenly served by these and other planned transport projects. Orangi, and Qasba in Karachi West, Liaquatabad and Federal B Area in Karachi Central, and Baldia and Mauripur in Keamari District, as well as many locations in other districts, are not aligned with existing and proposed transport projects.

A very important category of inter-city passengers are womenfolk. At present, they are served by buses and minibuses. It is disappointing that while there are no plans to launch concerted services for neighbourhoods here, the government is cancelling the route permits of buses and minibuses on alignments where BRT or People’s Buses are planned to operate. Many routes have been closed along the Green Line corridor. More will be shut when other public transport modes begin operating. A rather effective but invisible mode of transport are large rickshaws that function as a means of public transport. Over the years, it has emerged as an effective mode of transport, especially for women. The Sindh government has not allowed it to run as an approved mode of public transport. It is believed that the government has its own plan to launch feeder services for the BRT Red Line once completed.

For now, in the absence of a worthwhile alternative, the rickshaws ply alongside buses and minibuses; they have evolved their own management structure, administrative connections, and operational arrangements. Unfortunately, many of their drivers are underage and untrained. This issue must be addressed on a priority basis by the rickshaw association and the traffic police.

A key challenge to managing congestion is to shift car and motorbike users to public transport. This is essential to ease mobility by freeing up more road space for public buses and other vehicles. But this is difficult as many motorcyclists work as riders, ride-service operators, etc — briefly, mot­orbikes are an essential means of livelihood. Perhaps a doable intervention to ensure that motorbikes and other modes of transport can coexist is to incorporate service lanes where possible. It will separate local traffic from through traffic, lessen the possibilities of movement on the wrong side of the roads, and decrease accidents.

The writer is an academic and researcher based in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024