KARACHI: A research study has recommended introducing a viable and sustainable uniform public transport system in six cities of Sindh to cater to the needs of the people.

It also suggested that the transport system should be accessible to every citizen at an affordable price.

The study — Strategic Issues in Urban Transport: Realities, Policies and Implementation Issues in Selected Urban Cities of Sindh Province — was published by non-governmental organisation Shehri-Citizens for a Better Environment and launched at the City Institute of Image Management (CIIM) Hall at the head office of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday.

Sindh govt’s larger role sought in initiating mass transit system

Shehri-CBE carried out the research in six cities of Sindh — Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah and Mirpurkhas — and tried to look into the key issues there.

Head of the research team Waqar Saleem Baig said that all cities did not have the same key issues; for instance garbage collection and its disposal is amongst Karachi’s major concerns.

About their methodology, he said that they thought of visiting the cities and speaking to the stakeholders as it was better collecting one’s own data instead of relying on public data.

“Therefore we went into the field ourselves and held consultative meetings with people who use public transport, transporters, traffic police, NGOs, students for collection of primary data,” he said, adding that they then picked up the key factors from there to design a detailed questionnaire, which was again taken back to all the six cities to collect data from some 750 people.

“In approaching the people, we also took care to include women. We included 30 per cent females and 70pc males to tap the different needs of different people and among them there was no one below the age of 21,” he said.

“We found out about the kind of existing public transport systems in all the cities and of course their problems. Things such as traffic congestion at various times of the day also came up, along with things such as safety and security issues, backbone issues due to uncomfortable forms of transport, the physical conditions of bus stops, waiting time in between buses and why people are moving towards costly options such as Uber and Careem,” he said.

Recommending introduction of a viable and sustainable uniform public transport system in each city at an affordable price, it also looked to the provincial government for it to play an important and larger role to initiate the mass transit system in cities.

Earlier, urban planner Farhan Anwar of Shehri said that the research was a relevant survey and it managed to collect a lot of information through which one could understand and look into the issues of those people who use public transportation.

“We are talking about the larger context of urban mobility, such as pavements for pedestrians without encroachments, zebra crossings, bus stops and other modes of transportation for which the data gathered through the research can help policymakers in Sindh,” he said.

Mohammad Shahid, director, CIIM, KMC also spoke.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2018