City transporters withdraw 5,500 buses from roads

Karachi (PPI) - The urban public transport issue in Karachi is aggravating with every passing day. The government departments at both provincial and city level lack strategy and vision to cater the needs of millions of commuters of this largest city of Pakistan. Ironically, no new bus routes are being introduced in the city to facilitate commuters but buses were not being plied on at least 36 existing bus routes.

Karachi’s public transport problem has grown dramatically over the years and now became the biggest problem faced by the masses. The city badly lacks bus routes, especially in suburban areas, and commuters have to change many buses to reach their destinations. The population of the Karachi is on the run. According to the figures posted on the City District Government Karachi website, the population of Karachi, which stood at 9,269,265 in 1998, now stands at 18,000,000 in 2008.  During the last one decade the number of commuters have increased, but the number of public buses, minibuses and coaches has decreased considerably, instead of increasing. The government plan of introducing CNG buses is also in doldrums while no bus is being plied on as many as 36 routes of UTS buses in the city.

The government has badly failed to provide relief to the commuters, despite millions of rupees have been allocated for the introduction of CNG buses on emergency basis.

Sources in CDGK said that major reason behind the chaotic public transport system in Karachi is that the transporters are not ready to invest in brining more buses on Karachi roads. Instead, they are systematically reducing the number of buses and minibuses on various routes in order to create acute shortage of buses so that to earn more money on each trip by boarding hapless passengers on footboards and roof tops of their buses and minibuses.

The sources said that the CNG buses were imported from China and other countries, but after some time they were systematically pulled off the roads and nobody knows where these CNG buses had gone. They said 40 new bus routes were issued to UTS and CNG buses in 2003 to provide relief to the commuters but with the passage of time transporters disappeared UTS and CNG buses from these routes, aggravating woes of Karachi commuters. They said on these 40 routes, now UTS buses are plies only just four routes: namely UTS-1, UTS-11, UTS-12 and UTS-13, while the buses were not being plied on other 36 approved routes.