Japan International Co-operation Agency (Jica) will undertake a survey of Karachi traffic to assess and analyse the moving trends of the people within Karachi. The findings of this survey will be used to prepare a data bank of traffic patterns to devise Karachi Transport Master Plan to streamline the traffic system of the metropolis.
This was announced by Federal Communication Minister Shamim Siddiqui along with Noboru Kondo, Advisor Jica Pakistan office, and Director General (DG) Karachi Mass Transit Cell (KMTC) Malik Zaheerul Islam at a press conference here on Friday.
Under this survey, physical data collection through field survey teams would be made by interviewing over 100,000 persons of 35,000 households in all towns and union councils of Karachi.
The target areas for this survey will be residential houses, offices, industries, business places and public places. The survey is scheduled to be launched in August this year and would be completed in three months time.
The questions to be asked during the survey would be about household details, trip & movement details, transportation details, trip duration and timings, travelling route, occupations and other support information.
Shamim Siddiqui said that this exercise would be voluntarily performed by Jica as part of the Japanese agency's assistance to help develop the city of Karachi in view of its importance. The survey would cost Rs 4.5 million.
After the completion of the survey, he added, it would be collated, and on the basis of these findings, Jica would recommend to the government steps needed for improving the traffic system in the city.
WATER PROBLEM: "Jica is also considering to help in transport and other projects of the city," the minister said, adding, "once the project of traffic survey is completed, they will launch a project to assess the water requirements and its wastage in Karachi."
Recalling the state of inertia prevailing in different sectors in the city for the last many years, he said that Jica and agencies of other countries have realised the potential of Karachi and are interested to provide assistance in development of this mega city.
Shamim Siddiqui said that Jica also wanted to work on the Master Plan of the city and "this agency has more information about the city than the local agencies." However, he pointed out that improved law and order is the foremost pre-requisite to attract foreign agencies in development of the city. "A better law & order and proper infrastructure is responsibility of the government," he added.
He urged the media and the people to cooperate with the government to help improve law & order situation for the betterment of the city.
Jica advisor Noboru Kondo said that apart from traffic survey, his agency is interested to work in education, environment, health and other sectors in Karachi, and, as a first step, is carrying out this survey about the most troublesome aspect of the city ie, transport sector.
Malik Zaheerul Islam said that the existing data about the transport sector of the city has become obsolete, and hoped that the survey by Jica would be useful for future transport projects of the city.
"As growth of Karachi is more rapid as compared to Delhi, Singapore and Bangkok, and has become polycentric, it has piled up the transport problems", he added.
"Work on several transport-related projects is at different stages," he said, adding, " a MoU has been signed with an American company for mass transit project, which is expected to finalise feasibility and financial model of the project by next month."
"Revival of the Karachi Circular Railway is under way and induction of new large sized buses is also going on," he added.
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