KARACHI, Aug 8: Despite the fact that their terminus was recently removed, jumbo-sized buses bound for upcountry Pakistan have reappeared on M.A. Jinnah Road. As a result, a number of the city’s arteries in Jacob Lines and Saddar, and around the Taj Medical Complex (Hamdard University hospital) are experiencing severe traffic blockages as well as heightened noise and traffic pollution, while the locality’s hospitals and schools are particularly inconvenienced.

The illegal terminus of these super-sized buses was shut down in the wake of a much-publicised joint operation launched recently by the city government and the relevant cantonment board. Of the buses belonging to this terminal, the city government shifted those plying between Karachi and Balochistan to a recently-built inter-city bus terminal at Baldia Town’s Yousuf Goth. Buses on other routes, such as those going to the interior of Sindh, Punjab and the Northern Areas, operated from different locations for a short period but have now returned to their old terminus at Taj Medical Complex. They are currently visible not only on the main service road parallel to M. A. Jinnah Road but also on adjacent roads including a major link leading to the rear of the Saddar Dawakhana via Students Biryani House and Dawoodpota Road.

Their reappearance is being attributed to an inordinate delay in setting up the inter-city bus terminals planned at Razzakabad on the National Highway and at Deh Bhatti Amri on the Super Highway. The scheme to shift all upcountry-bound buses from the city centre was initiated in 2001 but the City District Government Karachi has so far succeeded in establishing merely one such terminus at the RCD Highway.

The return of the extra-wide buses is particularly inconveniencing citizens visiting the Taj Medical Complex, which houses the Hamdard University hospital and a number of specialists’ clinics. Haphazardly parked buses impede the flow of vehicular traffic and even ambulances carrying emergency medical cases are held up in the chaos. The traffic grinds to a halt whenever the bus drivers attempt a U-turn or park randomly in the area, and commuters are delayed while headed towards Empress Market, M. A. Jinnah Road or the rear of the Saddar Dawakhana, the route to St. Joseph’s school and college and Mubarak Shaheed Road.

Near the Taj Medical Complex, the giant buses are often parked half on the road and half on the footpath, while drivers carry out repair, maintenance and oil change activities without a thought to the immense difficulties faced by pedestrians and vehicles. Meanwhile, residents in the vicinity of the illegal terminus and the patients in the Taj Medical Complex complain of the bus drivers’ habitual use of pressure horns. The situation is worsened by a large number of pushcarts selling fruit and other commodities near Rainbow Centre and the Saddar Dawakhana turning, which not only create traffic hurdles but also pollute the area.