Urban commuting: Sindh CM urged to learn from ‘Punjab CM’s experience’

KARACH: Pasban Democratic Party PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor has urged the Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who himself is an engineer by education, to learn from the experience of Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz and seriously focus on the public issues of Karachi, especially in the urban commuting sector, which runs the worst public transport system than any other megacity of the world.

Welcoming the decision of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif to start a tram service in Lahore, he asked the Sindh government to revive the crucial tram system in megacity Karachi to facilitate commuters. He said Lahore will now get the first tram service, while in Karachi the tram service was present even before the creation of Pakistan. Tram service in Karachi was opened back in 1883 and it was sadly closed down in 1975 for mysterious reasons. He said trams are an efficient urban commuting system. Elsewhere in the world trams are seeing a comeback.

He said in 2017, a proposed plan for the renovation of the Saddar area in Karachi, had included the reintroduction of trams to ease the megacity’s transport problems, but the plan was put to the ice as the elite class rulers of Sindh don’t want to facilitate the poor commuters of Karachi.

He said modern tram systems around the world are efficient, cost effective and environment friendly.

He said trams provide greater passenger capacity of 300 or more persons as compared to only 60 in buses. Trams are quite friendly for children, ladies & elderly people with great comfort & ease to board on its low platform. He said for the congested downtown areas of Karachi, the tram is an ideal means of commuting. After introducing trams, buses and minibuses could be banned in the congested urban areas to provide an ease to citizens.

He regretted that the government of Sindh is ignoring the public transport issues of Karachi, whereas the Punjab government has already made Lahore the most advanced city of Pakistan regarding public transport. He said Lahore is at least one hundred years ahead of Karachi in terms of public transport facilities to its citizens.

He said in Karachi, the rulers have failed even to revive the old Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), while Lahore is successfully running its modern Orange Line train service. He said this is the difference between the priorities of the rulers of Punjab and the rulers of Sindh.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024