Menace of illegal bus terminals

At a time when the City District Government, Karachi, is also bracing for rain-related hazards simultaneously with its spirited pursuit of mega mass transit projects, frightening indeed should be a news report, pointing to no end in sight of the unabated use of some 200 illegal inter-city bus terminals by what has come to be regarded as the transportation mafia.
For as it is, with almost all the big and small intersections of city roads dug up for the mass transit schemes, there has lately been too much of traffic congestion all over in the megalopolis, with awful dimensions to commuters' woes added by the heat wave. Needless to point out, a great deal more was added to their predicament by the near collapse of KESC's generation and distribution system.
Gasping for breath during long waits for congestion to end, in long drawn dusty environment by day, and too frequent darkness by the night from electricity outages, commuting in the city is like undergoing a punishment. In this kind of a situation inter-city bus traffic moving in and out from nearby illegal terminals makes their lives all the more hazardous.
Now that prospects of rain have also been forecast one would shudder to think of the likely situation to develop.
With almost the entire city already dug up for one reason or the other, the pits cannot but be flooded by rainwater too, with no body really having any idea of how to drain out the water.
Had the plan for locating the inter-city bus terminals out of the city been implemented, the citizens might have been spared of, at least, some of the inevitable inconvenience.
It will be noted that it was in September, 2005, when Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister for Local Government, Katchi Abadis and Spatial Progress, Waseem Akhtar was told that transport operators had set up some 200 illegal bus terminals in various parts of the city, including Old Sabzi Mandi, Sohrab Goth, M.A. Jinnah Road, Cantt Station, Lea Market, PIDC, Mauripur, Garden Road, Nishtar Road, Banaras Chowk, Orangi Town and North Nazimabad.
More to this, around 226 buses were parked at Cantt Station on Daudpota Road, 217 at Pathan Colony, 217 at Old Sabzi Mandi, 125 at Taj Complex M.A. Jinnah Road, 100 at Lea Market, and 55 at Patel Para and Mansfield Street.
At the same time, he had also been told that three inter-city bus terminals - at Yousuf Goth Baldia Town on the RCD Highway, Razaqabad Landhi on the National Highway, and at Deh Bhatti Umeri, Scheme 33 on the Superhighway, were planned. It was also stated that 60 percent work on inter-city bus terminals on the RCD Highway at Yousuf Goth, Baldia, had been completed.
With this all buses plying Balochistan routes would be diverted to RCD Highway terminus, and the buses plying Punjab, NWFP, and Sindh routes would be diverted to the Superhighway terminus, while the buses plying only interior Sindh routes would be further facilitated by the National Highway terminus.
All this sounded quite comforting. For the decision, on that occasion was reportedly also taken to remove bottlenecks in inter-city bus traffic so as to eliminate illegal terminuses in order to reduce congestion on inner city main arteries.
About a year has since elapsed and the situation has not only remained as menacing as it then was, but has added immensely to its grim gravity. However the construction of Baldia Town inter-city terminal is reported to have been completed and tenders for its operation, management and maintenance had been invited by the end of May 2006.
More to this, while unfolding a Rs 24.78 billion foreign-funded mega project for Karachi, in January this year, the City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, had reportedly announced that terminus for all buses proceeding towards Balochistan would be shifted outside the city by June 2006. All in all, it will appear that the plans have not been pursued in a befitting manner, thereby, beckoning the City Government to take effective measures to produce the results it aims at.