Rawalpindi commuters’ woes

Pindiites continue to face problems as city authorities have failed to come up with any clear plans regarding public transport sector. With the growing population density of Rawalpindi, commuting in public vehicles to reach one’s destination has become an unpleasant experience filled with discomfort for commuters.

“While problems like over-crowded public vehicles, lack of proper operating schedule, long stays at approved and unapproved stops, and uncomfortable rides among others continue to plague the public transport system, ensuring safe, timely and quality public transportation facilities for citizens has become the need of the hour,” says Akif Ali.

“The population density of the city and trend of private vehicle ownership is increasing rapidly, the gap between private and public vehicle ownership continues to increase, which shows that the current chaotic condition of public vehicles and their number is not adequate to serve public transport commuters,” says Moqadam Hussain.

For Tazmeen Ali, a resident of Dhoke Muhammad Khan, who usually travels from Gulzar-e-Quaid to Super Market Islamabad, says: “Waiting for a lengthy period of time to catch a public vehicle has become a habit. I am usually working till five or six in the evening and it’s difficult to get a public vehicle during the evening hours. There are usually so many people waiting for the same and when it finally arrives, everyone tries to get in at once because of which getting a comfortable seat for a comfortable ride in public transport has become a distant dream.”

“On top of that, Tazmeen adds that the public transport drivers and conductors keep trying to fit more people than the vehicle’s capacity during peak hours, mostly during mornings and evenings which adds to passengers’ discomfort.”

Armaghan Haider says: “Proper monitoring and regulation of public transport sector is inadequate which has stunted the quality of service. The authorities have not been able to meet the demand of public transport on many routes. It is their responsibility to manage public transport system but they have not been able to neither manage nor monitor the public transport sector because of which passengers continue to face problems,”

“Our transport system has been predominantly dominated by small vehicles like Suzukis and wagons. Later on big vehicles like Waraan were introduced so that they could accommodate many people at once, but they could not operate on every part of the city road network because that was too small. But a combination of both small and big vehicles is necessary,” says Wasi Abbas.

Muhammad Qaim Raza says: “I feel that to deal with the problem of overcrowding of public vehicles, a public standard needs to be maintained while keeping quality of service and affordability in mind.”