KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Saturday informed the Sindh High Court that the Karachi Metropolitan Corpora­tion in compliance with the court’s order had removed major encroachments at different main arteries and streets in Karachi’s six districts for smooth flow of traffic.

The director anti-encroachment of the KMC filed a compliance report before a two-judge bench of the high court on behalf of the mayor who was directed by the court on April 22 to assist the court in resolving the issue of traffic congestion in parts of the city.

Faisal Bangali and other concerned citizens had moved the SHC through a constitutional petition against the relevant authorities for failing to enforce the ban on the movement of heavy traffic on roads during daytime.

They asked the court to issue directives for the authorities to improve public transport and introduce other alternatives to help commuters and reduce the burden on the existing transport.

The court was further asked to order the authorities to strictly conduct fitness tests of vehicles running on city roads.

The petitioners submitted that they were perturbed by the present situation of traffic in the city, which was deteriorating day by day.

They stated that the apex court had passed an order directing the DIG Traffic and the municipal authorities to immediately stop heavy vehicles from plying on roads in the daytime to maintain smooth flow of traffic. Subsequently, the Karachi commissioner also banned the movement of heavy traffic from 6am to 11pm for three months.

Nevertheless, they complained, heavy traffic was still freely plying on roads during the specific timings, taking a toll on smooth flow of traffic and posing an imminent threat to the lives of people.

The petitioners said the respondent authorities were bound to enforce the court orders for the improvement of traffic and safety of the public, but they had miserably failed to discharge their duties and implement the orders.

The bench had put the secretaries of the transport and local government departments, KMC, Karachi Development Authority, Defence Housing Authority, Clifton Cantonment Board and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency on notice directing them to file their comments on the petition.

The transport secretary and DIG Traffic had earlier submitted a compliance report, which included a proposal for amending the law to regulate the number of passenger buses on a particular route within a specified time.

The report also proposed criteria for the issuance of route permits.

According to the interim report submitted by transport authorities, there are 446 classified routes in Karachi. Only 165 are operational on which 6,176 public vehicles are operating (which includes buses, minibuses and coaches), whereas the remaining 269 routes are non-operational.

The DIG Traffic stated that 8,000 challans were imposed against heavy traffic, 266 vehicles were detained, Rs3.8 million in fines was imposed and 38 cases were registered against heavy vehicles from March 31 to April 21.

He said that 41 traffic police personnel were sacked for gross misconduct and negligence, three DSPs were issued show-cause notices for misconduct, while action was taken against various traffic violations.

The deputy commissioner (West) also submitted a compliance report on the removal of encroachments from SITE, Orangi Town, Baldia, Manghopir, Mauripur and the harbour areas.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2017