Shortage of BRT buses on Eid makes people suffer

PESHAWAR: Passengers and commuters suffered alot due to a shortage of buses for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service during the Eidul Azha holidays.

The TransPeshawar had recently claimed that the daily ridership crossed 270,000 this year out of which, approximately 70,000 were women. It had claimed that around 200,000 new Zu cards have been sold in 2022, while the total number of cards sold from the beginning is now 1.2 million.

But a trader Roohullah said that despite claiming that the service was popular with the passengers, reducing the number of buses on Eid holidays was confusing. On the one hand, the TransPeshawar said the new routes were being operationalised while on the other, lessening the numbers of buses on such an occasion when a majority of the passengers required the service was beyond comprehension, he added.

A university student, Kashif Khan, said when the TransPeshawar gained popularity among the residents of the provincial capital and the system received appreciation from several global platforms, the company should have focused on providing more facilities instead of depriving the citizens of the facility Eid.

Junaid Khan, a resident of Peshawar city, said international organisations should consider the lack of commitment by a company to its passengers before nominating any organisation for the awards.

He pointed out that the private buses and wagons were not available on the roads during the festival while suspending the service added to the miseries of the passengers. The citizen said that cab and rickshaw drivers had charged passengers double the normal fares to take advantage of the situation.

When contacted, TransPeshawar spokesperson, Sadaf Kamil, said the company had an active monitoring system at every station. She said the company sent additional buses when required at any station.

The official admitted that the company had suspended service at some feeder routes for a brief period but insisted that the buses continued service on the main route and other feeder routes.

She claimed ridership of the service had decreased to less than 50,000 on Eid holidays as most of the people had left for their hometowns. The spokesperson said the company does not reduce the number of buses when the ridership remains high on normal working days.

However, a resident of suburban Peshawar, Javed Khan, told this scribe that TransPeshawar should open more routes. He said that a route from Grand Trunk Road to Karkhano Market on the Ring Road would provide better transport facilities to the villagers along the Ring Road.

The citizen said this step would shift the burden from the main corridor and a huge number of people, who reached the main corridor for taking the facility from one point to another, would avail the same facility on the Ring Road. “A service on the Ring Road would save both time and money of these poor villagers,” he added. He said the government could also allocate a portion of the Ring Road for cycling as it is a comparatively wider road of the provincial capital.