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KARACHI, Nov 20: Some useful advice for when you hit the roads in Karachi and dread the hours of long traffic jams: make sure you have the latest hit by Rihanna, ‘Shut up and drive’, playing permanently in the CD player. It is a perfect reminder of the fact that no matter how much venom you spew, you still have to drive on.
Karachiites don’t have much choice but to drive or be driven through severe traffic jams and dug-up roads since the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has opened up the Pandora’s box of new development projects. The city nazim insists that the entire city should be dug up and developed simultaneously. We citizens pay the cost. But who pays for the anguish and frustration suffered daily by commuters? Who bills the years of negligence that filled personal pockets and led us to the chaos the citizens of Karachi face today? When the dust of development settles in a couple of years, our patience will have been completely sapped.
Traffic jams and clogged roads are today’s silently accepted reality. An estimated 1.7 million vehicles ply the roads of Karachi while almost 6 million people commute across the city. Commuters from densely populated areas such as Nazimabad, Federal B Area, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and North Karachi use mainly the Guru Mandir thoroughfare, M. A. Jinnah Road, Saddar, the Teen Hatti road or Sharea Faisal, which has been recently declared the city’s model road. Most of these are wide metalled roads that have accommodated high numbers of vehicles for years. Today, they appear narrow and congested due to the heavy traffic influx.
Although car leasing schemes are generally cited as the reason behind the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, this is not the only factor. The citizens of Karachi are condemned to a defective public transport system and corrupt traffic police, which nevertheless fails to cater to the mass demand.
More than 60 per cent of Karachi’s people use the public transport every day. Meanwhile, only 88,000 registered vehicles – including buses, mini-buses, vans, contract carriers, rickshaws and taxis – cater to the burgeoning need. According to estimates by the Mass Transit Cell, almost 40 persons compete for a seat in a public vehicle in Karachi, while 12 compete in Mumbai and eight in Hong Kong. No wonder people end up sitting on the roof or hanging off the backs of buses and vans.
Creating a nemesis
As more and more vehicles ply the roads, bottlenecks caused by blatant violations in land use, dug-up roads and inadequate parking aggravate the traffic situation. For instance, a plethora of commercial offices and schools has cropped up on either side of Tipu Sultan Road, which is officially a residential area. Traffic jams occur because vans and cars waiting for schoolchildren are routinely double-parked. Honking at the vehicles blocking your way will give a severe migraine, but the drivers will not budge.
The lack of enforcement on all fronts means that Karachi is creating its own nemesis. The traffic police department cries that it functions on a limited brigade of almost 3,500 policemen for a city of almost 16 million people. The lack of funds and resources to counter traffic violations is another concern.
However, town planner Tasneem Siddiqui considers these lame excuses. “The penalty for a traffic violation is now almost Rs600, as compared to a mere Rs15 in 1985. Where does this money go?” he asks. According to a study by the Urban Resource Centre, almost 600 to 700 challans (tickets for traffic violations) are handed out on Sharea Faisal alone every day.
Asked about the CDGK’s steps to tackle the traffic situation, deputy nazim Nasreen Jalil refused to be cornered but made sweeping statements about public welfare being her foremost concern.
However, the citizens of Karachi want action, not rhetoric.
Ad hoc solutions
That said, the city government has taken some steps towards addressing the problem. Newspapers recently reported that the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) intends to impose restrictions on the construction of buildings that fail to provide ample parking space. The bus terminus that plagues the centre of the city, where long-haul buses use most of the road as a private parking lot, is being shifted outside the city. These makeshift arrangements are good but they do not address the larger need – a viable public transport system that caters to public demand.
Local town planners have offered home-grown solutions but see no far-sightedness in the master plans developed so far. Flyovers, underpasses and signal-free corridors are ad hoc solutions to a steadily worsening traffic situation. Encroachments have been removed from Lalu Khet road but how will traffic be managed when gridlocks occur because of illegal parking?
Architect Arif Hasan claims that a mass transit plan will not serve the purposes unless it has an urban design with a deeply ingrained local perspective. Also, a mass transit system should be subsidised to offer a reasonably affordable ticket. The average family in Karachi spends almost 10 per cent of its income on public transport. “Policy makers need to make informed decisions,” said Hasan at a seminar recently organised by Shehri on traffic issues. “Relevant departments should have teeth, not ad hoc solutions offered by foreign consultants.”
