Pollution: In the city of chain-smoking vans

PESHAWAR: Sometime in the 1970s, Peshawar saw an influx of fancy new Ford vans, mostly for public transport use. Today, 40 years on, the same vans, rickety shadows of their former selves, continue plying the roads, belching enough smoke to create a haze around them.

For out-of-towners arriving at the General Bus Stand, the old wagons immediately catch the eye, but for all the wrong reasons. No one notices the intentional decorative touches, when unintentional ones such as broken windows and seats keep the eye pinned. The youngest of the relics date back to 1987, yet, the industry employs over 2,000 people and operates some 500 such clunkers in the provincial capital alone.

Most travellers in the city use these vehicles to go from the stand to Karkhano Market adjacent to Khyber Agency -- the last stop for city transport -- because it takes less to reach the destination compared to other bus services.

While passengers seem willing to trade off comfort for travel time, the owners and drivers find it hard to sustain their business due to the increasing prices of spare parts --- most of which are no longer in production --- and route fares and other government charges.

The drivers of these vehicles consider the poor condition of their vehicles to be the trade off to keep them “road worthy”, while also citing the awkward procedure for getting biannual clearance reports from the traffic department and oft-occurring ‘fines’.

They also said getting permits for a vehicle would cost Rs200,000, but when it comes to getting the task done, “you are even not required to bring your vehicle to the spot where traffic officials check the condition and then clear it.”

“Every day we give around Rs300 to the local government and the owner of the bus stand. Half of this is not even legal, but these are influential people. They just take it by force,” said wagon driver Muhammad Umer.

He added that prices of these vehicles have shot up in the last decade. What used to sell for about Rs400,000 now goes for around Rs1.5 million. However, Umer feels maintenance, rather than the sunk cost, is the real problem.

“The imports of the model stopped in 1987, but we still get spare parts at very high prices as there are few mechanics available,” he said.

Umer lamented that a simple paint job now costs between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000, an enormous hike from the Rs10,000 he used to pay a few years back.

As for the clunker under the hood, Israrullah, another driver, said: “A few hundred rupees will get you a clearance certificate in a couple of hours. It doesn’t matter how run down your vehicle is or how many problems it creates for the people and environment.”

Amir Inam, a student at the Institute of Computer and Management Sciences, said that although the wagons are not in good shape, he still takes them to college as they are a bit faster and make fewer stops.

On the flip side, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sajjad Khan said that they had banned many vehicles in which seats were torn, windows were broken and exhaust fumes were excessive, all on the complaints of passengers.

“The drivers are also fined if they offload passengers at unmarked locations, sometimes even on the middle of roads, and also if they do not stick to the lane made for passenger vehicles.”

Allaying another popular transporters’ complaint, he said fines on the front seat not been reserved for women are issued because “drivers were told many times not to give front seat to male passengers, but they still do not listen”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2012.