AGL 39.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-1.05%)
AIRLINK 131.22 Increased By ▲ 2.16 (1.67%)
BOP 6.81 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.89%)
CNERGY 4.71 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (4.9%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.47 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.59%)
DGKC 82.09 Increased By ▲ 1.13 (1.4%)
FCCL 33.10 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.01%)
FFBL 72.87 Decreased By ▼ -1.56 (-2.1%)
FFL 12.26 Increased By ▲ 0.52 (4.43%)
HUBC 110.74 Increased By ▲ 1.16 (1.06%)
HUMNL 14.51 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (5.53%)
KEL 5.19 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-2.26%)
KOSM 7.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.42%)
MLCF 38.90 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (0.78%)
NBP 64.01 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.79%)
OGDC 192.82 Decreased By ▼ -1.87 (-0.96%)
PAEL 25.68 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.12%)
PIBTL 7.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.68%)
PPL 154.07 Decreased By ▼ -1.38 (-0.89%)
PRL 25.83 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.16%)
PTC 17.81 Increased By ▲ 0.31 (1.77%)
SEARL 82.30 Increased By ▲ 3.65 (4.64%)
TELE 7.76 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.27%)
TOMCL 33.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.8%)
TPLP 8.49 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (1.07%)
TREET 16.62 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (2.15%)
TRG 57.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.82 (-1.41%)
UNITY 27.51 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.07%)
WTL 1.37 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-1.44%)
BR100 10,504 Increased By 59.3 (0.57%)
BR30 31,226 Increased By 36.9 (0.12%)
KSE100 98,080 Increased By 281.6 (0.29%)
KSE30 30,559 Increased By 78 (0.26%)

Proper colour coding for public transport buses is a hallmark of every civilised urban city, but in Karachi due to bureaucratic inefficiency and negligence, the public transport buses enjoy impunity for violation of official colour code. The local laws do prescribe proper colour schemes for all public transport vehicles, but the private transporters in Karachi bypass these rules and regulations as the concerned transport-related departments do not take interest in upholding their writ.
There is no concept of public transport buses without a particular colour code in any city. Not only the buses of London, New York, Paris and Tokyo have particular colour code, but buses of Delhi, Mumbai, Tehran and Colombo also follow their prescribed colour codes. Even colour-coded metro buses, painted with bright red colour, ply on Lahore roads. However, in Karachi public transport owners are allowed to paint their buses, minibuses and coaches with any available colour at their free choice. This gives the city streets an ugly and uncivilised look.
A private bus runners said they knew there was an official colour code for public transport buses ie red for wide-bodied buses, and yellow and white combination for minibuses and coaches, but why they should spend a few thousands to get their buses painted as per colour code when everybody including the government was happy with the public transport buses having no colour code.
He said public transporters gave bribes to every concerned department and from boss to an ordinary peon, every one was involved in this chain of corruption. "This is why no one takes action against private transporters for violating rules and no one will dare so in future because the mafia's own stakes are involved," he added. He said the public transport of Karachi was like a golden egg laying goose for the transport department, traffic police and other agencies related to transport and road traffic and regulating the transport sector would mean depriving all of them from their share of bribe money.
He was of the view that regulating public transport sector would certainly facilitate the commuters but the government officials and traffic police would never allow stoppage of their big source of bribery. As per the government laws, no public transport vehicles are allowed to ply on road unless they are painted as per the official colour code. The laws also prescribe that the driver and conductors of public transport buses would wear proper uniform and cap and they would issue ticket to commuters after getting fare. However, these laws and regulations are only on paper and nobody bothers to follow them because their official implementing agencies are corrupt and inefficient themselves.

Copyright Pakistan Press International, 2013

Comments

Comments are closed.