400 new vehicles hit City roads daily

KARACHI - The provincial capital of Sindh has witnessed a sharp surge in public as well as private vehicles’ number, as more than 400 new four wheelers, on average, are being brought on the streets every day.
Experts said that over 50 per cent of the commercial transport has exceeded their physical life and are a constant threat to the lives of passengers who travel in these depreciated vehicles.
According to one of city’s leading transport association of mini bus there are more than 3,000 busses, 7,000 mini buses and 8,000 coaches plying on the main roads of the city.
The fitness of these vehicles is a very important issue which needs the authorities attention as most of accidents take place due to lack of fitness of the transport. But this is also a question that as to how these poor conditioned vehicles could be banned because the city is already is facing a dearth of vehicles.
In daily routine we experience the passengers taking their seats either on rooftop or standing at the entrance or footsteps of the vehicles, as they cannot find space even for standing between the two rows of seats. According to Karachi Taxi, Motor Rickshaw and Yellow Cab Owners Association president Hafiz-ul-Haq Hasanzai, there are around 586,29 two-stroke auto rickshaws and around 40,000 black cabs in city. Transporters understand that their vehicles are fast getting out of the roads and they also want to keep them fit but this needs huge chunk of money, which they can not afford.
The transporters said that they have tried their best to convince the CDGK and city’s transport authorities to financially help the transporters improve their outdated vehicles. They said that one and a half year back a talk between city nazim and transports were started on this issue but issue was not settled due to inflexible behavior of the government.

SOURCE BY : /www.nation.com.pk/