At least 3,000 Qingqi rickshaws will be released by the Karachi traffic police department soon after the decision of Supreme Court to regulate these Qingqi rickshaws on condition of fitness, safety and registration from the provincial transport department.
According to official sources, a large number of Qingqi rickshaws were impounded by the Karachi traffic police few months back when the Sindh High Court banned these dangerous rickshaws. Quite few rickshaws were released but as many as 3,000 were still detained.
After the decision of the apex court, the Sindh transport department has accelerated its efforts and outsourced its project pertaining to fitness of these rickshaws to an engineering transport company and sought recommendations on their safety within three months.
The private transportation company’s executive director seeking anonymity informed the PPI that they had recommended the transport department to provide rickshaw drivers a compulsory basic training for one month under well trained instructors. He also recommended that there should be a junction near link roads that connects main roads and these rickshaws should only be allowed to commute people from their homes to main roads in the city so that they can catch another transport for long routes, while short routes up to five kilometers should be allowed to these rickshaws to commute public.
