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.