If Metro employees and customers are not satisfied with the service, it will be ruined like Pakistan Railways and PIA
ISLAMABAD: The Metro bus service in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad was developed at a cost of Rs44.8 billion and is getting a subsidy of Rs2 billion per annum. However, it hasn’t been able to maintain itself even for one year, with its downfall starting after just 11 months of its inauguration on June 4, 2015.
This was a costly project due to which the government has been facing huge criticism. The authorities are still spending on it, but the bus service remains in loss. Some 68 buses were to be operated between the twin cities but the government had to park almost half of them and there are only 35 running buses now. Despite the subsidy, there is little evidence of maintenance work being done for the Metro service. Most Metro stations are facing technical issues. Many of the elevators, ticket machines, automatic gates and vocal alerts in buses are out of order. The roofs of the buses do not provide relief from the rain and are in need of repair. The Metro bus service is also not friendly to its employees and has failed to satisfy them. They are not happy with the amount of the salaries they are getting and the irregular intervals that pass between the receipt of the salaries. They work non-stop during the week and still do not receive their salaries on time.
The Metro service is a public property on which the government is spending continuously. But if it is not maintained and if its employees are not satisfied with their salaries nor customers with the service, then it will be ruined very soon, like the Pakistan Railways and PIA.
Arslan Rasheed Malik
Published in The Express Tribune, May 26th, 2016.
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