Lives at risk: Banned transport vehicles continue to ply city’s roads

Permits were cancelled because their models had gone obsolete

PESHAWAR: There are thousands of public transport vehicles seen on the city’s roads have been banned for the last 33 years. Although locals are aware of the risks involved in commuting through these vehicles, they continue to do so, albeit begrudgingly.

“We do not have any other means and are bound to use the vehicles of old models,” Alam Khan, a student of University of Peshawar, told The Express Tribune.

He added the wagons and buses do not have any indicators or even proper seats for passengers.

Alam believes the government was playing with the lives of locals.

These banned vehicles include wagons, minibuses, big buses, rickshaws and taxicabs that were banned because of they were obsolete.

With impunity

According to documents by the transport department, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, minibuses on the route between General Bus Stand and Hayatabad were banned by the government in 1999. However, but they are still used to date by a large number of people. Similarly, buses that go from General Bus Stand to Kohat Road and Jamrud are banned since 1988 because their old model is a threat to the passengers’ security.

There are 1,146 minibuses that take passengers in the city from one stop to the other every day Khunjerab.

The government had banned 526 big buses in 1988. They drive from Peshawar city to other parts of the provincial capital.

The documents added 644 wagons — that are seen on the roads in urban areas of the city — were banned in 1983, but they are still operational, despite their models being outdated.

Similarly, there are 10,813 taxicabs the permits of which were cancelled in 2000 because of the same reason, outdated models. However, officials in the transport department, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune the taxicabs were still in use in urban as well as rural areas.

As per the documents, 3,065 taxicabs have been banned since 2009. However, the government has yet to discard them. More than 10,000 vehicles, including flying coaches, trucks, tankers and other loaded vehicles’ permits were cancelled in 2011. However, they were still seen on the streets of the city.

Action so far

Traffic Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sadiq Baloch told The Express Tribune traffic police and Vehicle Emissions Testing Station (VETS) have found 432 vehicles unfit to move on the roads, out of the 1,000 that were checked in February and March. Fines worth Rs172,800 were also imposed on the drivers.

Fazlur Rehman, a superintendent at Regional Transport Authority Peshawar, told The Express Tribune there was no alternative available for commuters who use the public transport. As a result, outdated vehicles were being used.

When asked about the government’s plan to introduce new projects for public transport, he said the government was striving to offer well-equipped transport facility to the public. For this, Rehman said, 50 new model air-conditioned coaches have been introduced in the city by the government.

“Time to time, we would set aside the older vehicles from the roads to replace them with new ones,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2016.