Contrary to the claims by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) high-ups of having made efforts to promote tourism, no headway has been made to provide proper public transport for the visitors to travel to recreational spots, including Daman-e-Koh, Capital Zoo, Shakar Pariyan and Lok Virsa.
Damn-e-Koh, about 3,000 feet from the sea level and almost 1,000 feet higher than the capital city, is popular among the residents as well as the visitors, but lack of public transport hampers the recreational activities even at this beautiful spot. Daman-e-Koh is situated in the Margala hills, which is totally a cut-off area, without a route for public transport. In such a situation, no one can intend to visit the spot along with his family without hiring a taxi for the purpose.
“Despite having a wish to visit Damn-e-Koh, I cannot go there because the high fares of cabs are unaffordable,” said Sajid Akhtar, a visitor. He stressed the tourism organisations and the civic body to introduce proper transport for recreational spots, including Daman-e-Koh and Pirsohawa, saying it was not possible to visit the area with the family members in the absence of proper transport. However, every one wants to visit the beautiful spot through which one can see almost all the prominent places of the federal capital.
People from the elite class who have their own vehicles and can afford expenditure without any fear of inflation frequently visit Daman-e-Koh. The transport system in the federal capital is also no more than a hell for a commuter, particularly in the office hours. Female commuters also do not feel safe while travelling through the present transport system as drivers are reluctant to keep separate seats for women.
Pakistan Today spoke to a number of commuters on these problems and found that most of them were not satisfied with the transport facilities and the behavior of van drivers. They demanded the civic body to immediately meet its promises to introduce a new bus system. On the other hand, CDA spokesman Ramzan Sajid told this scribe that the civic body would soon launch the Prime Minister’s Rapid Bus Transit Project at a cost of Rs 200 million during the current month to mitigate the sufferings of commuters.
He revealed the transport service, comprising 30 buses, was being launched to facilitate the commuters of the twin cities. He added the project would be environment-friendly and all the buses would use CNG. Paperwork to launch the project on important routes was complete, he said and added the new transport service was going to focus on facilitating the working class people, students and women.
The routes selected include Route-1 from Secretariat to Faizabad via Murree Road, Route-2 from Bhara Kahu to Aabpara, Route-3 from Faizabad to F-11 via Blue Area and Route-4 Sector I-11 to Secretariat. However, no route has been selected for the recreational spots even in this plan of the CDA. Regarding transport facility for tourism spots, the spokesman said the CDA chairman had decided to launch four special buses for the recreational spots.
He added the decision had been taken at a meeting held a few days ago. He however added that the launching of tourism train was a step forward to resolve the problems being faced by the citizens while traveling to the recreational spots.