Defying govt orders, transporters fleece travellers ahead of Eid

Transport dept took action and made crews to return Rs0.5m to passengers

KARACHI:

Unfazed by official warnings and penalties the transporters continue to charge excess fare from passengers going to hometowns for Eid.

Most of the transporters have the perennial argument for overloading and overcharging on Eid that they have to back to the city with empty seats - there are no passengers heading from their towns in Sindh and Punjab to Karachi.

Nevertheless, the Sindh government has come down hard on the transporters charging excess fares.

The campaign of Sindh Transport and Mass Transit Department against transporters continued for the third day against the transporters charging exorbitant fares.

Meanwhile, separate teams of transport department have been formed for different areas in Karachi which are engaged in operations in morning and night shifts.

At least 289 vehicles were checked in Karachi and Rs551,000 was returned to passengers on the spot. The transport department officials, with police backup, board buses coming out of various terminals in the city. They ask the passengers how much fare they have paid, and if it is above the regular fare, the officials make the bus crew return excess amount to the passenger.

Meanwhile, in Jamshoro, the District Regional Transport Authority (DRTA) along with the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) seized the documents of two inter-city coaches and also recommended cancellation of their route permits.

Officials forced the crew of the coaches to return Rs267,000 to passengers.

Transport Department officers checked 30 vehicles along with Motorway Police in Shaheed Benazirabad. They challaned nine vehicles for charging excess fare from passengers and made the bus crews refund Rs810,000 to passengers.

Similar actions followed in Thatta, Mitthi, Sanghar and Shikarpur on provincial highways and also in Rohri on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway.

Passengers departing for their native towns to enjoy the Eid holidays with their loved ones complain of transporters charging twice the bus fare.

Getting a seat during the festive occasions is a daunting task during the Eid rush - bus, train or aeroplane ­ anything that moves is overloaded with people trying to go home for Eid, a booking clerk, Shahzaman Tanoli, working at a transport company at Taj Complex terminus told The Express Tribune. Taj Complex, Sohrab Goth, Lasbela and Super Highway bus terminals are overcrowded, Tanoli said, adding they keep getting phone calls from company’s top bosses, relatives, friends and even police officers and political leaders to accommodate such and such person.

While transporters make windfall from the Eid rush, passengers complain of being charged excess fares.

Arshad Soomro, heading to Thatta via van said he paid twice the fare than on normal days. Ali Dehto, a Mitthi-bound passenger said that the panic of shortage of seats was deliberately created, so that passengers agree to pay extra fare.

Many passengers complain that they were charged for seats but instead of a seat, they were made to sit on a stool in the passage of the vehicle. There was a lack of initiatives on the part of the government and the management at the bus stands this year as well.

The transporters on charging excess fares say that they are forced to collect some more fares than usual due to the high prices of fuel and the lack of passengers on the return route.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2023.