Public transport: Qingqis to be modified based on NED study

The vehicles may be regularised after they are tweaked to conform to safety measures.

KARACHI: The provincial government has decided to regularise Qingqi rickshaws and register them as commercial transport vehicles. The move is aimed to overcome the growing deficit of public transport in the city.

To this effect, the provincial chief secretary has constituted a three-member committee comprising the provincial transport secretary, the excise and taxation secretary and the traffic police AIG. The committee will present its report in 15 days’ time, said an official of the transport department.

The department expedited the efforts to regularise Qingqi rickshaws after the traffic police had banned their movement on the roads in the second week of October. Hundreds of the vehicles were detained for not having fitness certificates during the drive. “Currently, there are no provisions in the motor vehicle rules, under which Qingqi rickshaws can be given legal cover,” the official remarked. He added that the law needs to be amended through provincial legislature to declare them commercial vehicles.

Speaking about the registration of the Qingqi rickshaws, the official said that their number plates were either fake or of motorcycles as they were registered as motorcycles with the excise and taxation department. “The traffic police are reluctant to award them fitness certificates due to their structural problems,” he explained.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the provincial transport secretary, Taha Faruqui, said that the NED University of Engineering and Technology had conducted a study on the structure and functionality of the Qingqi rickshaws on the request of the transport department. The university’s experts had given their recommendations for making the Qingqis a safer vehicle.

The feasibility report

The report, a joint venture of the Department of Urban and Infrastructure Engineering and the Department of Automotive Engineering of the NED University, gives specifications for the motorcycle to be used in these rickshaws and its carriages. According to the report, the motorcycle should have a 100 CC 4-strock engine with mechanical drum brakes, along with a hand brake and a multi-disk mechanical clutch. The vehicle should have shock absorbers and adjustable balance rods in its front wheel with ‘Leaf springs’ at its rear wheels’ suspension for added support.

It goes on to suggest that the Qingqi should seat a maximum of seven passengers including the driver. The carriage must have a waterproof roof about 1,060milimetres above the seats. The passengers should be provided with legroom of at least 13 inches. The carriage itself must be 9.6 feet long, 4.8 feet wide and the top measuring at six feet from the ground. The report further determines the type of steel rods and sheets that must be used for the carriage to make it a safe public transport vehicle.

“We are examining the NED University’s report to remove the flaws from the body of Qingqi so that the traffic police can give them fitness certificates. Once this is done, the Qingqis can be legally used as commercial vehicles,” said Faruqui. He was of the view that the regularisation of Qingqis will add millions to the revenue generated in motor vehicle taxes. “Over 100,000 of these are plying on the roads without paying any taxes. If regulated, the excise department can also collect their motor vehicle taxes.”

Traffic Police AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo said that he had nominated a focal person to examine the NED university. “If the changes suggested by the NED experts make them safe, we have no issues in giving them fitness certificates.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th,2013.