LAHORE, Jan 7: The Badami Bagh General Bus Stand is among the dirtiest places in the provincial metropolis due to lack of proper sanitation arrangements.

Hundreds of thousands of people arriving in the provincial metropolis from the other cities and towns or leaving it witness a marked difference in the sanitary conditions inside and outside the second largest bus stand in the country. They cannot believe that they are in the bus stand of the provincial metropolis of the province with the largest population in the country.

Garbage and solid waste is scattered all around the place because the sanitary workers do not bother to lift it regularly. Roads in bus bays are full of depressions and covered with foul smelling mud. Sanitary conditions in the bus stand worsen following a rainfall. The whole area is covered under inches deep mud making reaching or leaving the bus bays an ordeal for the passengers.

Sanitary conditions in the bus stand are inadequate because the City District Government is earning over Rs50 million per annum from it but is spending only Rs10 million on its maintenance and improvement. The fee equal to the single one way fare charged from the owner of every bus is enough for keeping a bus bay neat and clean for the whole day but the City District Government does not seem to spare even the meagre amount for the bus stand sanitation.

The bus stand is not only dirty but has also shrunk in size due to disposal of the entire parking area and the urban bus service stands for the construction of shops. The major entry of the passengers from the Circular Road side has been almost closed and the public transport carrying them reaches it either from the PECO Road side or the Ravi Link Road side where the stands of airconditioned coaches were shifted in 1990’s.

The worst imaginable traffic congestion is witnessed in the Ravi Link Road area near the bus stand where the public transport is bringing the passengers from different parts of the city and the buses are leaving for their destinations throughout the day. The urban public transport has to pick and drop the passengers right on the road due to lack of any parking space. No parking space is available for hundreds of buses waiting for their turn to pick the passengers from the bus stand either. Scores or these are seen parked along the Circular Road stretch between the bus stand and the Attique Stadium.

The Badami Bagh General Bus Stand is used by 300,000 to 500,000 passengers daily. An average 4,000 buses, wagons and flyingcoaches pick and drop the passengers at the 73 bays of the bus stand daily. Every bus picking the passengers from the bus stand has to wait for three to 16 hours for its turn somewhere around it.