Motorcycle-rickshaw forces buses off routes

LAHORE
Major transport owners and companies have started pulling their public transport buses off intra-city routes due to the inability of the government and Lahore Transport Company to eliminate motorcycle-rickshaws from bus routes.
The most recent instance in this regards is the disbanding of Route 16 by a transport company because the number of motorcycle-rickshaws on this route has multiplied over the time. While LTC has been busy holding ‘meetings’ on how to solve this problem over the past 5 years, people and the transporters have been suffering.
Route 16 operates from Lahore Railway Station through Qartaba Chowk, Jail Road, Siddique Trade Center, Gulberg, Kalma Chowk, Township till Omar Chowk. The ending of such an extensive route of this particular bus has caused major problems for commuters.
In a letter to the LTC chairman, traders and inhabitants of Omar Chowk protested the disbanding of the route and demanded LTC to take affirmative action to eliminate problems faced by transport companies which forced them to tend route 16.
When contacted, spokesperson for the company, Naeemullah said that the LTC had been time and again notified about the problems faced by transport business regarding illegal transport, especially motorcycle-rickshaw. However, practical action has almost never been observed. The company, he said is the only city bus public transport company to which LTC does not pay any subsidy to; the least they can do is provide an enabling environment for business.
Motorcycle rickshaw was declared illegal transport by Lahore High Court in 2005 and the Transport Department was told to eliminate it. In 2009, Provincial Transport Secretary Chaudhry Iqbal told The News the government had been planning to implement the ban for a very long time as motorcycle-rickshaws were the major source of pollution and traffic chaos in the City. He said that motorcycle-rickshaws were illegal as these were not registered by the government. The government vowed to ban and eliminate it by 4th May 2009. This however didn’t materialize.
In 2011 another effort was made with the collaboration of the Environment Department, which too failed. EPD Environment Impact Assessment Director Naseem-ur-Rahman Shah said that the meeting did not aim at wiping out two-stroke auto and motorcycle rickshaws in a forceful operation, but the idea was to take measures which would create pressure leading to the gradual elimination of these agents of vehicular pollution.
The major problem, however, is that the scheme of funding the exit of motorcycle-rickshaws through subsidy/conversion plan could not find its way into the transport budget 2012-2013 although it is the pivotal problem in all major cities of the province. This project was shelved last year after being proposed in 2010-2011.
In 2009, around 25,000 motorcycle-rickshaws operated, and despite their manufacture and usage being illegal, the number has risen to 35,000 by 2015 according to LTC’s own survey. With the livelihood of thousands of people - directly or indirectly - being linked to this cheap transport the government has feared voter backlash and thus done nothing.
At the moment, the bus transport service in Lahore district is planned over 53 routes, which are based on 2006 survey of passengers, published in Punjab Gazette 2006. Out of these 53 routes, only 30 are operational.
The LTC spokesperson said that the committee formed under PMLN MNA Mehr Inshtiaq has been working since 2013 to find a solution on how to ban motorcycle rickshaw without rendering thousands jobless. The details of these vehicles had been sent to the Excise Department and are still pending with them which has delayed the action. He said that defining and executing the plan to ban this illegal transport in the city is in its final stage and the longstanding demand of the transport owners will soon be addressed.