PHOTO: Mohammad Azeem
KARACHI: With the February 25 deadline for the implementation of safety standards in public transport vehicles ended a week ago, the city administration has re-started its campaign against transporters who have not yet conformed to the prescribed criteria.
The latest campaign will cover school vans, inter and intra-city buses, as well as private taxis and rickshaws. The vehicles will be inspected for substandard CNG cylinders, fitness certificates, driving licences, fire extinguishers and emergency exit doors.
"We will no longer show leniency toward any public transport vehicle owners," said Manshad Ali, the secretary of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), stressing that all school vans must conform to the prescribed safety standards. Failure to do so will result in getting their licences revoked and their vehicles impounded, he warned. Ali said that a strict crackdown was being initiated with the help of the traffic police.
"If anyone is found using substandard CNG cylinders or fake fitness certificates, the licences and permits of these vehicles would be cancelled for forever," he said. Ali added that his department had received several complaints regarding the use of substandard CNG cylinders in school vans.
In response to a question regarding inter-city buses and coaches, the secretary said that the deadline for the installation of emergency exits and fire extinguishers had already ended on February 25. His department has impounded 25 vehicles and imposed fines worth 0.5 million since, he revealed. Ali said that the latest campaign was beginning to yield results as inter-city bus operators had started installing emergency doors in their vehicles.
"We are inspecting the buses at major terminals and do not let them start their journey without emergency exits," he claimed.
On Tuesday, Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui also held a meeting regarding safety measures being adopted for school children and inter-city commuters.
"We have decided to take effective and practical steps to ensure that school buses and vans meet the requisite safety standards," he said. "It was also decided that speed limits would be fixed on certain roads in the city," said the commissioner, adding that the RTA secretary will issue a notification for this purpose in consultation with the Transport and Communications Department, the traffic police and other relevant civic bodies.
Not everyone is convinced, however, about the success of the campaign. "Similar campaigns were conducted in the wake of the Gujrat school van incident and the Kathore link road accident, but then things returned to where they were," said the director of the Urban Resource Centre, Zahid Farooq. "They will have to take this issue seriously otherwise it will just end up as another media campaign."
Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2015.
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