KARACHI, June 2: Traffic issues are so low on the city government’s list of priorities that it has not held a meeting of the traffic management board, constituted to enable it to liaise with the traffic department, for the past one year.

Officials upset about the long-drawn dormancy of the Karachi Traffic Management Board told Dawn that both the district coordination officer, who is authorised to convene KTMB meetings as secretary, and the city nazim, who is the board’s chairman, seem to have lost interest in it.

The KTMB was established on Feb 15, 2006 through a Sindh government notification. In addition to the city nazim and the DCO, representatives of the city government, police officers, experts from the private sector and representatives of the media sit on the board as members.

The officials recalled that the board had met only two times: once in the month it was formed and then in May 2006.

City government sources told Dawn that some time back Nazim Mustafa Kamal floated the proposal of merging the traffic police, which is not under the city government’s control, with the local government. But, the merger plan subsequently ran into snags, they said.

They said that former chief secretary Fazlur Rahman agreed to constitute the board with a view to providing a common platform to the traffic police and the district administration so that they could sit together, discuss problems and formulate policies to streamline the traffic system.

The executive district officer of the city government’s transport and communication department, Mohammad Athar, said that, practically speaking, a sudden bar on old, smoke-emitting public transport was not possible until alternative transport facilities were in place.

"We are going to induct CNG buses into the fleet of public transport and old vehicles will be gradually phased out,” he said.

"The meeting of the board will also be convened soon," said the EDO transport, who is also a KTMB member.