The co-ordinated plan of provincial government and the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) to convert two-stroke rickshaws into four-stroke to make Karachi an environment-friendly city may face difficulties in producing desired results because of technical and financial impediments.
Elaborating the technical difficulties, being faced in the conversion process, sources in Sindh Environment Department told Business Recorder on Tuesday, after switching over from two-stroke to four-stroke rickshaws, the noise pollution could be reduced significantly, but there would be little affect on air pollution caused by these vehicles.
They said that according to an estimate, around 50,000 auto-rickshaws were plying on the roads in the metropolis and majority of these vehicles was two-stroke.
So far only two auto-rickshaws have been converted into four-stroke, while conversion of thousands of such rickshaws was almost impossible, they observed. According to a Suparco report, air and water pollution levels in Karachi have crossed national and international environment quality standards, posing serious threats to the lives of Karachiites.
They said the auto-rickshaws, plying on the city roads, were the major source of air and noise pollution, as the concerned authorities never took any action to check the menace. "Though the transport departments of provincial government and the CDGK are working hard to phase out faulty vehicles, it seems difficult to convert two-stroke rickshaws into four-stroke."
Sources in Sindh Transport Department said that conversion also affected the performance of the vehicles and consumed more fuel, resulting in emission of more smoke. It may be pointed out that the registration of two-stroke rickshaws has been banned and under the directive of Sindh High Court, they should be phased out as soon as possible.
Sindh Governor Dr Ishart-ul-Ibad Khan, after being persuaded by the rickshaw-owners had given relaxation to them till mid-2008. Though the rickshaw-owners and drivers are willing to convert the two-stroke rickshaws into four-stroke, using CNG, they said financial constraint was the real problem in phasing-out the faulty vehicles. Moreover, they did not have financial resources to buy new four-stroke CNG rickshaws.
Lauding the President's Rozgar Scheme, they demanded of the government to further facilitate the rickshaw-owners to get soft loans from the banks. Karachi needs integrated policies and approach for sustainable environmental development and the situation demands strict enforcement of the laws to make the city environment-friendly.