KARACHI, Jan 18: The city government has sent a summary to the provincial government proposing privatization of the motor vehicle inspection department for bringing an improvement in the state of fitness of vehicles plying on roads.

This was stated by City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal in a meeting held at the Civic Centre Secretariat to review the feasibility study and development of transportation control plan for the metropolis on Wednesday.

The study was prepared by the Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) in collaboration with the transport and communication department of the city government.

Mustafa Kamal told the meeting that a proposal had been sent to the provincial government about privatization of the fitness certificate department being run by the traffic police. He stressed the need for making the system of issuing fitness certificates to vehicles foolproof and elevating the standard of fitness department.

He was of the view that the traffic police should be merged in the city government, as at present the schemes conceived by the city government transport department to improve traffic management system were not implemented properly. He disclosed that he had recently talked to the prime minister about the merger of traffic police in the city government and the matter was under consideration.

Earlier in the previous setup of the city government, a proposal had been envisaged to bring all departments dealing with traffic and transport affairs, including motor vehicle inspection and driving licence branch of commercial vehicles under one umbrella. However, the traffic police had strongly opposed the idea.

“The two sections, purely related to policing, cannot be given under the control of the city government and our stance has been supported by the home department,” a senior police official had claimed. The performance of MVI authority was disappointing, as certificates were being issued to unfit commercial vehicles, sources said.

The sources close to MVI branch claimed many of the transport operators did not need to get their vehicles physically checked. They got fitness certificates without going through the legal formalities. The rates were fixed for issuance/renewal for the fitness certificates to those vehicles, which were not physically examined, they said.

The present setup of the city government had again taken up the issue and proposed privatization of the fitness certificate issuing authority. The idea was once again being opposed by the traffic police department as the police officials were not in favour of the concept. In other developing and developed countries, the traffic police were under the local governments.

The Wednesday’s meeting was informed that the study was conducted at 26 busy intersections of the city and a report was prepared about the impact on human life due to noise and air pollution. Blood specimen of different road users including pedestrians, drivers, officials of traffic police and shopkeepers were acquired and examined. The report said that frequent traffic congestions on various roads and appalling state of vehicles had caused an alarming increase of hydrogen and nitrogen gases in the air. The report says unfit vehicles of two-stroke and diesel engines and auto-rickshaws generated noise and smoke, which had caused hearing impairment besides the number of patients suffering from throat and chest infections, asthma, and cancer had been increasing constantly.

The city nazim said that auto-rickshaws were supposed to be safe riding option for women and an immediate ban could not be imposed on auto-rickshaws despite the fact they had been source of noise and air pollution. He said that the government was striving to bring in 1,000 large CNG buses.

The meeting was attended among others by DG Suparco Irshad H. Siraj, DG Mass Transit Malik Zaheerul Islam, EDO Transport Mohammad Ather, EDO Revenue Swaleh Farooqui, EDO Finance Roshan Sheikh, GM Suparco Mohammad Ashiq, Consultant Dr Irshad Baig and EDO Planning and Design Police Qazi Abdul Qadir and other officials.