PESHAWAR, April 2: The traffic police have failed to carry out the orders of NWFP governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah to get fare meters installed in rickshaws plying on city roads by March 31.

“We have given three months more to the three-wheelers to install the meters as the union of rickshaw drivers has objections to the proportion of fare structure against unit consumption because petrol prices fluctuate after every three months,” said Assistant Inspector General (AIG), traffic police, Khalid Habib while talking to Dawn here on Tuesday.

He said the provincial transport department had been given the task to prepare a unit slab. During the extended period the transport department would prepare fare structure  against  unit consumption keeping in  view  the fluctuation of patrol prices to remove the rickshaw drivers’ compliant, he added.

More than 14,000 rickshaw are plying on the city roads, but none of them have installed fare meters till the end of the deadline as they say “it is not available in the market”.

Expressing ignorance about the government deadline, an owner of rickshaw Akram Khan said that the fare meters were not available in the city markets.

He added that in recent past his rickshaw was impounded by the traffic police at Bacha Khan square with five other three- wheelers on the charges of non-installation of fare meters.

Supporting the government decision, he said after the installation of meters the dispute between the rickshaw drivers and passengers over fares would come to an end.

Another owner of a three-wheeler Ghaniur Rehman, said that the meter installation would reduce their fare as patrol prices were increasing each passing day.

“All the rickshaw drivers are poor. They even cannot afford to install a proper silencer of Rs 280, how will they purchase a fare meter of Rs 5,000,” he questioned.

An auto parts dealer situated in the city’s biggest auto spare parts market, said that there was no meters available in the market as there was no demand of it. “We don’t want bond our investment in dead items,” he added.

“There is a tremendous pressure on the traffic system as some 100,000 vehicles are plying on various city roads. The task of installation more than 14,000 fare meters in rickshaws will add to the miseries of traffic police,” said a senior official in traffic police. He said the traffic police had only 152 field staff to control traffic at one time which was insufficient for a big city like Peshawar.