Commuters have been facing an acute shortage of public transport services on the Sihala-Raja Bazaar route, as they have no options to travel other than on Suzuki vans.
Thousands of people daily travel on this route, which starts from Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi, and ends at Sihala Bazaar, a rural locality of the Federal Capital.
People, especially students, government employees and factory workers are of the view that the Suzuki van service currently available, is insufficient to cater to the needs of the area.
They complained that the staff operating Suzuki vans, humiliated commuters by making frequent “requests” to change seats.
They were charging exorbitant fare by quoting unapproved fare-charts, and threatened to disembark them in the case of non-compliance of their requests.
“Women are among the worst sufferers as there are no proper seating arrangements for them in Suzuki vans, which have a sitting capacity of 12 people”, said Rehmat Ali, a resident of the area, while talking to APP.
The commuters have requested the authorities concerned, to provide a decent transport service, like Toyota Hiace vans and air-conditioned buses on the route, to create an atmosphere of healthy competition among the transporters.
