KARACHI, Aug 17: Around 500 to 600 fatal accidents occur in the city each year, mostly involving pedestrians and motorcyclists, reveals the Karachi Strategic Master Plan (KSMP).
Discussing the city’s public transport system in detail, the plan which will soon be presented before the City Council for its formal approval, attributes the fatal accidents to poor traffic control planning during road construction.
The plan holds the poorly managed construction projects responsible for the confusion caused to drivers and thus leading to more accidents, and says that the road fatality rates are particularly high in Saddar and Bin Qasim towns.
At present 51 road projects are either being executed, rebuilt or upgraded. The plan points out that travel speed in most part of the city are 30-40 kilometres per hour whereas the peak travel speed in the central business district (CBD) could be 15km per hour or even less.
Citing various reasons for congestion, it says that misuse of road space, reduce roads’ width, making capacities below demand, road maintenance, and poor signalling create extreme congestion in the CBD. Excessive parking, street hawkers and shops and other encroachments are some of the other reasons.
Pedestrians are forced to walk off the narrow curbs and into the road space while the CBD also suffers from the large amount of through traffic travelling to and from Karachi Prot Trust, it say, adding that shortage of bus stops and generally poor access to transit provide no alternative for those who own private vehicles.
Moreover, increased population, economic activity and vehicle ownership forecast for the next several years are likely to contribute to a marked increase in traffic congestion, it apprehended.
In all there are around 1.5 million vehicles registered in the city and almost one-half are cars or jeeps and more than one-third are motorcycles.
Giving a break-up of the vehicles registered till 2005, the KSMP says it 685,000 are cars and jeeps which come to 48 per cent of the city’s total vehicle fleet; motorcycles (5,47,000 – 38 per cent); rickshaws (over 39,000 – three per cent); taxis (over 44,000 – three per cent); buses and mini buses (over 20,000 – one per cent); trucks (over 20,000 – one per cent); vans and pickups (73, 000 – five per cent); tractors (400 – almost zero per cent).