Motorcycle rickshaws fill transport gap

A large number of citizens are forced to travel on relatively unsafe motorcycle rickshaws due to insufficient public transport facilities in the provincial capital.

Inactivity of Lahore Transport Company and discontinuation of bus services on all city routes has aggravated the crisis of public transport. The transport department has also failed to take initiatives to improve the public transport situation in the city.

The LTC has suspended its service, while the transport network companies modeled on international online taxi services have also taken their 150 to 160 air-conditioned coasters and buses off the routes.

Only a few public transport buses are available for Lahore's population of over 10 million.

Meanwhile, the number of private vehicles has increased and traffic jams take place for hours on the roads in Lahore due to the unavailability of public transport. Commuters complain that the journey of minutes is now taking hours because of the increased traffic.

Due to the unavailability of public transport, the business of online cab services has increased manifold over the time.

According to sources in the transport department, people in Lahore take about one million trips daily to reach their businesses, workplaces, educational institutions, markets and other places. About 70% of the travel is carried out through private transport. The LTC has suspended it services on all routes in the provincial capital.

Due to non-availability of buses, motorcycle rickshaws have become an important means of public transport. According to sources, 60% of the public transport passengers in the city are now using the rickshaws that have emerged as an alternative mode of transport on all routes of the LTC.

However, most of the motorcycle rickshaws do not follow the safety standards and rules, which is why the rate of their involvement in traffic accidents has increased.

When contacted, Punjab Transport Minister Jahanzeb Khan Khichi told The Express Tribune that the government is working on various proposals for improving the transport system. He added that the Punjab government had a grant from the World Bank. “We have requested the chief minister to allow us to upgrade the transport system with this grant.”

The minister said buses would not be operated under the old contractor system of the LTC and a new model would be introduced for the purpose.

LTC Chief Operating Officer Zafar Qureshi confirmed that buses were not running on any of the LTC routes. “We have given various suggestions to the Punjab government, on which some positive progress is expected to be made soon,” he added.

According to sources, the buses of LTC service operators had reached the age of eight years. The cost of repairing the buses was high because they had become old, so the operators stopped their service. LTC's operations have remained completely shut down for the past 10 months.

Transporters say that if the shortage of public transport in the provincial capital is not met immediately, the traffic will not be reduced even if the routes are doubled. They said the only solution to traffic congestion in the provincial capital was to increase public transport facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2020.