Hattar Industrial Estate to Taxila: Ban wagon operators on the route, bus owners demand

Threaten to stop service; locals say they prefer travelling on wagons.

HARIPUR:

Bus owners have threatened to stop plying their vehicles from Hattar Industrial Estate to Taxila indefinitely if wagons owners were not barred from providing transport service on the route. The move is expected to cause difficulties for students, industrial workers and villagers who have to make the commute daily.

Around 40 bus owners maintained they had obtained a stay order against the wagon owners in this regard till October 8, but the wagon operators have started plying their vehicles on the route in defiance of the order.

Wagon service from Gulu Bandi stop of Hattar Industrial Estate to Taxila was allowed last month on orders of District Coordination Officer Haripur Syed Mohsan Shah. The bus owners operating on the route voiced their concern over the decision, saying it would deprive them of their source of income. They also maintained that a DCO does not have the authority to allow new travel permits, adding that only a commissioner can make that decision.

Haripur Taxila Bus Service Station Manager Riaz Khan said that a bus leaves after every 10 minutes on the route, hence providing a cheaper and faster means of transport to labourers, students and villagers on the route compared to wagons.

However, locals have lauded the DCO’s move, terming it favourable for the public.

Bakhshish, a resident of Shadi village, said that overloading on outdated and dilapidated buses has caused loss of many lives on the Hattar Industrial Estate to Taxila route. He said that women and children travelling on the route were forced to make the journey standing in the buses. The villager said that despite numerous complaints, the authorities never bothered to improve the service.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2012.