The Sindh government has decided to launch an intra-district bus service in the last week of the current month.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Sindh Minister for Transport Sharjeel Memon in Karachi on Saturday.
Addressing the meeting, the minister said that in the first phase, buses will start operating on two routes in Karachi.
He said that the National Radio Transmission Company has conducted a detailed survey of the proposed seven routes and identified the hindrances and suggested improvement and repair of the routes.
The public transport system in Pakistan was deregulated in the early 1980s. Since then, private operators provide urban transport services and the government plays a role in fare control and route licensing. These individual transport operators prefer low cost, small size transport vehicles to maximize their profits. Transport authorities consistently fail to supervise the quality and efficiency of the public transport system due to a lack of institutional capacity to supervise these solo transport operators.
Public transport aims to provide an inclusive public transport system that moves the masses in a financially affordable, socially acceptable and environmentally sustainable manner and also helps increase local economic growth in the area. However, the on-ground public transport system regularly fails to provide the minimum acceptable level of mobility that suits the sociocultural and financial needs of its users.
