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KARACHI, Aug 16: The Sindh police and the local administration on Thursday sought to lay the blame for the city’s traffic woes on each other when the deputy inspector-general of the traffic police said dug-up roads were responsible for snarl-ups and the city nazim wondered if there would be no traffic jams after the completion of resurfacing work on the roads being currently repaired.
Both made these observations at a seminar on “Transport issues in Karachi.” The seminar was organised by Shehri-CBE and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
Calling for citizens to have “patience” until the traffic problems of the city are resolved, Karachi’s Deputy Inspector-General of Traffic Police, Wajid Ali Khan, insisted that all parties concerned should work together to solve the city’s traffic issues.
The DIG was asked by the organisers to summarise his response to the Supreme Court notice, which he had given to Justices Rana Bhagwandas and Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi on Aug 15.
While enumerating the problems the police faced in regulating the city’s traffic, the DIG pointed out that dug-up roads were one of the factors that contributed to the gridlock.
However, City Nazim Mustafa Kamal, who was the chief guest at the seminar, in his remarks later on seemed to take exception to this claim. He rhetorically asked the audience that if all the 55 roads that had been identified as being under construction had been completed, would the city’s traffic problems be solved.
Wajid Ali Khan said that replying to the SC notice had put him in “a difficult position,” but claimed that the notice in question was issued in connection with a human rights petition which was submitted in February, and was not associated with the gridlock on Aug 13.
He said a shortage of staff and equipment also hindered the traffic police’s performance while when a speaker pointed out that the police was empowered with the authority to remove encroachments through the Police Order 2000, the DIG claimed that the police faced “pressure and compromises” each time they removed encroachments from roads.
He reiterated that the police alone could not tackle the city’s traffic problem.
Architect Arif Hasan, in his presentation, cited the reasons why cities have failed to manage traffic and transport. He said transport engineering has undergone changes as First World solutions have failed to solve Third World problems. He said billions of dollars have gone into building roads and flyovers in cities like Bangkok, but their traffic problems had worsened. The management of traffic and transport, he said, had failed in many cities as planners had not integrated transport, traffic planning and land use, there was a failure to persuade the public to use public transport and investment in light rail projects had proved inappropriate.
On the issue of building a light rail transit system in Karachi, which is one of the proposals city planners are considering as a solution to the present transport conundrum, Arif Hasan said that though many Asian cities had built LRT networks, none of these went through the cities’ historic centres.
He urged the powers that be to consider the importance of historical buildings and other heritage sites, especially along M.A. Jinnah Road, when drawing up their LRT or elevated expressway plans. To bring his point home, he unfurled a huge banner which featured pictures of all the landmarks which were under threat and told the audience that this was what we risked losing.
In his remarks, the nazim said that problems could not be solved overnight and he did not want to make any lofty promises he could not fulfil or make any sugar-coated statements.
He said today there were no closed-door decisions being taken by the city government and all decisions were public, adding that the CDGK wanted the citizens’ input and that the people should take ownership of the city.
Dr Tahir Soomro, EDO Transport and Communications, Malik Zaheerul Islam, DG Mass Transit, and Roland deSouza of Shehri also spoke.
