The city transporters said that the dug up and dilapidated roads further devastated by the heavy rains have caused manifold increase in waste of fuel and 50 percent decline in the mobility of public transport.
"The buses, coaches and minibuses used to make at least four to five trips a day at their specified routes previously but now they complete hardly two trips a day for being stuck up at numerous points due to severe traffic jams or for wandering in side lanes and streets searching way to their destination," Syed Irshad Hussain Bukhari, Syed Mehmood Afridi, president and general secretary, respectively of Karachi Transport Ittehad, said in a statement on Thursday.
It takes eight to ten hours at least to complete a trip, which consumes 50 percent more fuel added by loss of income at same ratio, they contended. "This all was the result of ill-planning by the concerned authorities, who in a haste dug all the small and big roads simultaneously and also without no arrangement of draining out the rainwater," they said.
The rains have also exposed the civic authorities, who had claimed international standards in construction of certain roads, as such roads have caved in at a number of places and the rainwater accumulated there, the transport leaders lamented.
Such a situation was the cause of innumerable miseries to the transporters as well as the citizens. " The authorities can not even imagine the mental agony suffered by the commuters, who have to travel for hours to reach too late at their destination."
The KTI leaders appealed to the DIG Traffic Karachi to take serious note of the situation and take remedial measures especially at the roads where traffic mess due to potholes, craters, digging and ongoing construction has become a routine. They also held traffic police responsible for such a situation.
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