KARACHI: As the intercity bus service is set to be suspended for the next two weeks from Thursday (today) as part of precautionary measures to stop the spread of coronavirus, the options for daily commuters are likely to shrink further since ride-sharing transport services either announced shutdown or cut existing routes in the metropolis, it emerged on Wednesday.

Also, the Sindh government has demanded that the federal government suspend train services in the province “for the time being”.

First came the announcement from Sindh Transport Minister Syed Awais Qadir Shah who following Tuesday’s decision of the provincial cabinet said the intercity buses were being banned for the next two weeks and demanded the same from the centre for train services.

“The Sindh province has decided to put a temporary ban on intercity buses and we want that the federal government should also ban train travel,” he said and added that the decision from Islamabad would help the efforts of the Sindh government to contain the virus as many people from other provinces were arriving here unchecked.

He said that the Pakistan Railways did not have resources to deal with the situation as even employees of the crucial services were not provided with masks to avoid coming in contact with the suspected coronavirus patients.

With intercity bus service set to halt from today for 15 days, ride-sharing services also cut operations

“A large number of people or I should say thousands travel through trains daily and such situation could become a cause of virus spread on a large scale across the country due to lack of screening facilities at railway stations,” he said.

The Sindh government had on Tuesday decided to close public places in the province during a meeting of the task force on coronavirus chaired by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah with a view to stopping spread of coronavirus through social contacts. However, the government had decided that restaurants would be allowed to offer home delivery service and grocery, milk, fish, chicken, meat and vegetable shops/stalls would remain open as usual.

Another important decision taken by the chief minister was to close intercity bus services. However, intra-city bus service would continue as usual. Similarly out-patient departments of hospitals would remain closed for 15 days but hospitals would keep their emergencies open round the clock.

Following measures by the provincial government, ride-sharing transport services also followed the measures on their own.

“In the light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Pakistan, in the interest of the health and safety of our passengers, Airlift has decided to temporarily suspend operations until April 6. Airlift will, therefore, not be operating in Lahore and in Karachi — this is our attempt to flatten the curve and to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” said a statement issued by the ride-sharing service Airlift.

However, Swvl, an Egypt-based organisation which launched operation in the city last year, did not decide to shut its operation as it announced restricting its activities and ply its vans mostly on the most demanded routes with all precautionary measures.

“We believe that a certain number of people have to travel and we can only contribute or ease their lives by providing a certain number of buses on those routes,” said Swvl’s Shahzeb Memon. “So, to be very honest, we are not shutting down completely but restricting our operations with all precautionary measures and guidelines provided by the Sindh health department. We are making sure the availability of sanitizers for our drivers and passengers while using our service. Similarly, we have decided to cut down the routes and operate on those which are most sought after.”

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2020