Lack of public transport in Karachi

Lack of regulation has made public transport sector of Karachi chaotic and messy, resulting in immense problems for the millions of commuters of this mega city and the inept bureaucracy still has no clue about how to tackle this serious urban social issue. This causes crowds of commuters waiting at bus stops and dangerously overcrowded minibuses with commuters even sitting on their rooftops. These roof racks stay despite the instructions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan to dismantle them. The government should have cancelled the route permits of transporters who are not interested to play their vehicles on these routes and invite other transporter to obtain these routes, but this practice is yet to be started.

The route issuing authorities should link the route permits with specific vehicles, so these minibuses may only be run on their authorised routes. The name of the route should be painted on front, rear and the sides of the vehicle so that it runs only on that particular route and not switched to any other route as per the wish of its owner.

Another grave fleecing of commuters is that the public transport runs on cheap CNG but charge fare on the basis of use of costly diesel.

The system of issuing fare tickets to commuters is not being followed in Karachi due to sheer inefficiency of transport department.

The public transport system in Karachi cannot improve till only wide-bodied buses are allowed to ply on its streets and all narrow-bodied minibuses and coaches are phased out from the city. This needs a strong political will and vision on the part of government. Karachi public transporter is immensely profitable sector and if the government announces giving bus routes only to wide-bodied buses many new investors would jump into arena for making quick money.

Muhammad Saad

Karachi