Transport authority for Karachi planned

The establishment of a service providing transport authority under the Karachi Mega City Sustainable Development Programme (KMCSDP) was planned in a consultative debate on a draft roadmap at Multi-Stakeholders Workshop.
The idea of Karachi Transport Authority (KTA) was agreed during the debate moot on the roadmap was presented by Roshan Ali Sheikh, Project Co-ordinator, Local Support Unit, KMCDP and Roland deSouza, Chair, Multi-Stakeholder Expert Working Group in their respective speeches at a local hotel here on Saturday.
The two-day consultative workshop was organised by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and the Sindh government in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to make the roadmap more participatory by taking inputs from the key stakeholders.
Under KMCSDP, based on four roadmaps on Water and Wastewater, Solid Waste Management, Improvement of Katchi Abadis and other Low Income Housing and Transport, ADB would provide 800 billion dollars.
The "tactical level planning" based moot with Ghulam Serwar Khero, Additional Chief Secretary, Planning and Development Department, government of Sindh, as chief guest, explored various recommendations from the stakeholders ranging from provincial and city government officials to the financial institutions and a large number of civil society representatives.
The draft roadmap proposed an "integrated system of transportation" comprising Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), Light Rail System, Subway and Karachi Circular Railways under which, the roadmap said, in the first tranche the BRTS on two corridors and Urban Traffic Control Project would be taken up.
The roadmap with guiding principles including a sustainable transport system for economic uplift of the city; affordable, reliable, safe and efficient transport system to lessen negative externalities and provide a smooth logistic chain; integrated transport system with flexibility to meet uplift challenges; performance measures to monitor progress of the roadmap and need for a livable and balanced city was declared open for stakeholders' inputs till the finalisation of the design and implementation work.
The participants, divided into small groups on institutional arrangement; bus rapid transit system/sub projects in first tranche; public awareness and role of citizens, deliberated upon various suggestions in a concentrated bid to improve the transportation system of the metropolitan.
The group on institutional arrangement besides agreeing the development of Karachi Transport Authority (KTA) proposed a "committee" comprised of representatives from the key stakeholders to work on regulation and reforms in the new system and a "secretariat" where the policy makers would gather.
The three bodies would, however, be independent of each other having "separation" in terms of functions. Any law proposed by KTA would be subject to the approval of committee and secretariat, agreed the group.
The group also proposed that in principal the traffic police should be given under control of the CDGK being a "full-fledged part of the KTA" to improve the illegal parking and driving.
Other recommendations included ban on car-leasing to encourage use of public transport, systematic traffic counting by installing traffic counters, checking female and children harassment in public transport, performance/tenders based issuance of rout-permits, universities inclusion in the research work, restoration of the private sector's confidence, lowering the intensity of peak hours, "behavioural modifications" by offering gainful incentives, mass awareness on civic level and strict enforcement of traffic laws and handicap-friendly bus system etc.
Roshan Ali Sheikh, on the occasion, said that we are here to devise a "structure" and "system" oriented strategy to sideline the incompetents, whether local or foreigners, and incorporate the efficient parties.
The CDGK officials however encouraged inputs in line with the improvement of "poor" transportation system after some civil society representatives turned critical on the longstanding gray areas in the traffic system.