KARACHI, Feb 25: The public transport problem in Karachi is where it had been years ago, and there is no hope of its solution as the rulers seem not yet ready to give this pressing social, economic and human issue a proper place on the list of their priorities.
It has now become a set pattern that when the baffled Karachiites raise their concerns over this issue, the rulers pacify them with lollipops of the complete and early revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and 8,000 new wide-bodies CNG buses. Years come and go, but the promises of the KCR revival and CNG buses are not fulfilled. One could only salute the Karachiites for their patience.
During morning and evening rush times daily, millions of Karachiites travel in shabby, overcrowded, painfully slow and dangerously fast buses and minibuses to reach their workplace or homes in a very pathetic manner.
To help end their plights, the former city government administration in 2001 introduced the Urban Transport System (UTS) system in Karachi, and Green Buses and some other private companies ran CNG-run wide-bodied buses. It is said that the former city nazim had envisaged bringing some 10,000 environment-friendly CNG buses in Karachi in two phases, besides a plan to convert half of the existing city buses on CNG. He had also offered incentives such as CNG at half the price of diesel, sales and import duty exemptions and concessions for installing CNG refueling stations.
He had successfully persuaded the federal government to waive the import duty and sales taxes on the import of these buses as a special case.
However, despite such ambitious plans, in practice some 300 CNG buses were brought on Karachi roads in the era of Naimatullah Khan. These included UTS and Karachi Public Transport Scheme (KPTS) buses, including 32 AC long buses of the Sweden Bus Company, 28 AC buses of the Green Bus Company, 30 non-AC buses of the World Wide Enterprises, 30 non-AC buses of the Allied Bus Service, 28 non-AC buses of the Green Bus Company and 197 non-AC buses of Metro Bus Service.
City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal also saw solution to the public transport problems in the wide-bodied CNG buses and said that histhe administration would introduce 8000 new CNG buses in five years to phase out worn-out buses from the city. According to his plan, the first tranche of these 8,000 new CNG buses had to reach Karachi by December 2006.
However, the year 2006 passed without seeing any of the promised CNG bus, and for the year 2007 there is even not even a tentative date for the first tranche. There is a ray of hope that a South Korean bus maker is setting up an assembling plant in Karachi, but when will it be finalised and begin rolling out production no one knows.
The progress on the revival of the KCR, a mega rail-based urban public transport system for this seventh largest city of the world, also seems painfully slow. It is a pity that though this ambitious project, launched as back as 1969, was abruptly closed in 1999, and since then its fate hangs in the balance. In 2004 President General Musharraf had ordered the revival of the KCR within two years, but despite the passage of three years it is still in limbo.
Though it is now said that Japanese investors are keen to invest in this project and the government had also given green light to them, to the dismay of Karachi commuters the physical work on this very vital rail-based urban project is yet to be initiated.
Many Karachiites see no hope in the early future for the revival of the KCR or introduction of CNG buses, as the ruling quarters, notwithstanding their rosy statements, seem not keen to take on the issue.
There is no concept of a urban city without a matching urban public transport system. It is interesting that the basic theme of a majority of statements of officials is that Karachi has not only joined the club of modern and developed urban cities, but it is becoming a regional hub of trade and commercial activities.
One is at loss to understand how a city having inefficient and obsolete mode of public transport could be termed a modern urban city. The public transport sector of Karachi since long has been a victim of ostrich policies of successive administrations. Sadly the present one also seems following in their footsteps. The policymakers are forgetting the basic point that they could not get rid of the pressing issues by putting them off, because these issues only get complicated and aggravated with deferral, and in later stages like chronic diseases are hard to cure.
To solve the chronic issue of public transport in Karachi, our policymakers need courage, innovation and strong political will.
Public, however, patient and naive it may be, could not be hoodwinked for too long. Statements and promises have also their limits, and they lack charm and appeal if repeated for too long.—PPI