City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has said that efforts are underway for operation of tram service in congested commercial parts of city, where entry of all cars and buses would be banned.
Speaking at inaugural ceremony of 70 new buses of Urban Transport Scheme (UTS) on Tuesday night he said addition of new buses in existing fleet is a present of city government to people of city. These new buses will operate on six different routes of city.
On the occasion Trans Levia and Quaid City Bus Group announced that their buses would charge only Rs 5 from commuters during holy month of Ramazan whereas some bus companies will arrange Iftari for the passengers during that month.
Welcoming the gesture of companies City Nazim said that prices of commodities are reduced on sacred occasions in all civilised society of world and people are provided relief during these days.
He observed that there is no transport system in Karachi in real sense and people are shy of traffic police. "There is a need of change in attitude of traffic police toward people," he added.
Naimatullah Khan assured the transporters that there would be no problem for them in getting route permit and traffic police would have to bring change in attitude.
He told that city government has planned to develop bus terminals in four depots of defunct KTC. He requested provincial government to hand over these terminals to city government so that development work could be initiated there.
He underlined the need for implementation of mass transit scheme for provision of better transportation facilities to people along with induction of large size buses.
Referring to agreement with Chinese company for mass transit project he urged federal government o remove the bottlenecks in the way of project in order to initiate the project.
EDO Transport and Communication Department CDGK Dr Tahir Soomro giving a review of transport system of Karachi told that vehicular population of city is 1.5 million. Of which 45 percent are cars, 37 percent motorcycles and rest are other.
"There are 20,000 buses, minibuses and coaches in Karachi, being the 13th biggest city Asia having enormous civic problems," he added.
Under UTS, he informed, new large size buses would be operated on each 27 prime routes of city after every 15 days. The number of new buses will touch 500 by December. 490 buss shelters would be constructed.
EDO told that agreements have been signed with 14 companies for new buses. He felt that CNG is the fuel of vehicles in future and federal government is considering to give incentives for induction of CNG buses in city.
"Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed planners to devise a comprehensive planning in view of increase in number of vehicles in Karachi, he added.
He observed 232 UTS buses, 6,301 minibuses, 2,321 buses and 3,262 coaches, presently operating in city are insufficient to cater the transport needs of metropolis.
"City Government is trying to activate KTC drivers training institute to educate drivers about traffic rules and regulations, he added.
Comments
Comments are closed.