KARACHI, Dec 11: City Naib Nazim, Mohammad Tariq Hassan, said on Tuesday that the revival of the circular railways was essential to overcome the city’s gigantic transport problem.

Highlighting the importance of the circular railways in the light of his recent official visit to India, where he had attended a seminar on the urban environment management, he said that 4.6 million people travelled daily by the circular railways in Bombay, and about 3.2 million people travelled by Kolkata’s underground metro train.

He said to newsmen at an Iftar party that since the city’s transport problem was assuming an alarming proportion, there was a dire need to introduce jumbo-sized buses on main thoroughfares, while the plying of minibuses and coaches should be restricted to feeder routes alone.

He also mentioned that Indian public transport had switched over to CNG as it was not only cheap but also did not contain lead.

Asked if the city government would also like to follow suit, he replied that a decision in this regard would definitely be taken when there would be enough CNG filling stations in the metropolis.

Drawing a parallel between Kolkata and Karachi, Mr Hasan said that although both the port cities had so much in common, such as malaria and open drains, the one major difference between the two was that whereas the Kolkatans did not have to pay even the water tax, leave alone a levy on fire and conservancy services, the Karachiites had been paying the water, fire and conservancy charges from the very beginning.

“When I told the Kolkata mayor that the residents of Karachi had been paying water, fire and conservancy taxes, he expressed his desire to visit Karachi to have a close look at our system of governance and the taxes being charged from Karachiites under different heads, especially the water tax,” the Naib Nazim said, adding that he had invited the mayor and his family to visit Karachi.

Referring to migration from rural areas to cities, a problem facing both Karachi and Kolkata, he emphasised the need for introducing low-cost housing for slum-dwellers.

Summing up his observations of Kolkata, Bombay and Delhi, he said that although these cities were also confronted with numerous problems, their transport system was much better than that of Karachi.

He said he would discuss better aspects of their transport system with city Nazim Naimatullah Khan, for bringing improvement in the city’s transport system.

He said that he was particularly impressed by the computerized car-parking system there and would also pursue the idea here in Karachi.

He pointed out that education in India was good, yet inexpensive.

Regarding the financial resources of the local bodies in major Indian cities, Tariq Hasan said that their main source of earning was through property tax.

Nazim of Jamshed Town, Ahmed Qasim Parekh; secretary to city Naib Nazim, Hassan Imam Siddiqui; and one more official of the Naib Nazim secretariat also attended the seminar as part of the city government’s delegation.