URBAN TRANSPORT PLANNING & DESIGN

COUNTRY REPORT - PAKISTAN

Presented by Mr. Muhammad Ahsan Raja

SecretaryPlanning & development Department

Government of the Punjab.

PAKISTAN

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MAP OF PAKISTAN

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SCHEME OF PRESENTATION

Part-I of the report provides information on the structure and

functions of the Planning & Development Department, Government

of the Punjab, Pakistan;

Part-II presents present status and future prospects of Pakistan

relevant to the urban transport;

Part-III has information on existing laws and regulations on urban

transport;

Part-IV supplements analysis, obstacles to development in the

urban transport sector along with a vision for the future.

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PAKISTAN – A DEVELOPING COUNTRY IN SOUTH ASIA

Pakistan is one of the South Asian countries having four provinces - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province with spread over 796,095 square kilometers.

Mid year estimate for its population in 2004 is about 151.60 million persons. Out of which 55.5 percent inhabitants are in Punjab province. Population-wise it is the sixth most populous nation in the world. During fiscal year 2003-2004, salient features of national economy have been;◙ Double digit increase in GNP depicting per capita income at

$652;◙ GDP growth at 6.4% with its distribution between commodity

production sector --agriculture and industrial sector at 47.8% with agriculture still reflecting rural character (out of it) at 23.3% and remaining 52.2% attributed to the services sectors.

◙ Despite the pre-payment of $1.17 billion of high cost external debt, foreign exchange reserves stood at $12.5 billion;

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PAKISTAN

Reduction in external debt from $37.9 billion to $35.8 billion in last four years;

Foreign direct investment attracted $760 million as compared to $696 million in the previous year with a speculation of crossing $1.00 billion during the current financial year;

Privatization programme momentum gained gross proceeds on offer of shares against public corporates above $2.2 billion;

The consumer price index remained higher at 3.9% as compared to 3.1% over the previous year;

Expenditure on education and health as % of GNP is 1.7% and 0.7% respectively;

The literacy level hanging around 54%;

Reduction in rising trend of poverty with pro-poor growth limiting its incidence upto 30%; and

Un-employment rate at 8.27%.

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STRUCTURE OF GOVERNANCE IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan is a federal republic comprising the four provinces of

Baluchistan, Punjab, North West Frontier Province and Sind; and

each of the four provinces is further divided into districts.

Correspondingly, there are three tiers of governance in the

country: the federal, provincial and local.

The Planning & Development Department is a department of the

provincial government of the province of the Punjab, where more

than 55% of the people of Pakistan live.

PART-I

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF

PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT,

GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAB,

PAKISTAN

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PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

The Planning & Development Department is a center of excellence,

responsible to respond to the challenges of poverty reduction,

employment generation and sustainable development for socio-

economic transformation of the Punjab. Development of a strategy for

policy planning, data management, economic analysis and procedures

for public service designed to prepare the province of Punjab for

equitable growth, private investment and employment generation, all

fall within the purview of the Department.

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MAJOR FUNCTIONS OF THE PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

Preparation of Five Year / Rolling Plans

Policy formulation for approval of development schemes

Preparation of Annual Development Programme

Monitoring the utilization of ADP funds

Clearing house for development schemes within the competence of Federal Government

Coordination between different departments in development matters

Economic policy issues

Research in economic issues

Foreign training

Foreign Assistance

Implementation of foreign assisted/ funded projects

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT

The Planning & Development Board comprises of its Chairman and five members. The Secretary of the Planning & Development Department is also ex-officio Secretary of the Board. The Board is responsible to ensure that development in various sectors is aligned with the overall development strategy of the province and that all projects approved for implementation fit into this development perspective. Each development section in the Department, for instance, Environment, Transport, Health, Education, is headed by a sector Chief, who, in conjunction with the corresponding provincial government department, is responsible for the formulation of comprehensive short, medium and long-term development plans and also for the detailed scrutiny of each project within the context of these plans. Sector Chiefs are assisted by Assistant Chiefs and Research Officers.

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ORGANOGRAM OF P&D

CHAIRMAN

Secretary Member-I Member-II Member-III Member (Engg)Chief

EconomistHon. Member

(Tech)

Addl. Secy. (Adm)

Sr. Chief (Coord/ADPF)

Sr. Chief (DP)

Chief (ECA)

Sr. Chief(SW&Env)

Dy. Secy. (Adm)

US (G)

US (E-I)

SO (E-II)

SO (E-III)

SO (C&C)

SO (FT)

SO (Trans)

US (B&A)

Comp. Prog.

AC (Coord-I)

AC (Coord-II)

AC (DP-I)

AC (DP-II)

AC (PPH)

AC (ECA-I)

AC (ECA-II)

AC (Eval.)

Chief (Education)

AC (Edu)

AC (Health)

AC (Agri.)

AC (RP)

Chief (W&P)

AC (W&P)

Chief (WTO)

Chief (PP)

Chief (DERA)

AC (DERA)

AC (ME&PA)

AC (Mon.)

Chief (WTO)

Chief (Health)

PM (RS)

AC(Consultancy)

AC (R&B)

AC (Imp.)

AC (Tech.)

Chief (R&B)

PART-II

PRESENT STATUS AND

FUTURE PROSPECTS OF PAKISTAN

RELEVANT TO THE

URBAN TRANSPORT

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OVERVIEW OF URBANIZATION IN PAKISTAN

Increasing population, commerce and industry lead to greater mobility of people and goods. Especially, with cities getting bigger and bigger, the demand for urban transport grows and the daily movement requires number of buses, cars and circular locomotives etc.

If the narrow roads are get clogged with endless stream of smoke emitting vehicles, then, option for inducting circular rail etc becomes inevitable.

It is rapid increase in the cities population that creates the urban transportation issues.

Studies have revealed that almost half of the urban growth in the big cities was contributed by the rural –urban migration.

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OVERVIEW OF URBANIZATION IN PAKISTAN…

Growth in the cities is beyond the ability of developing governments to provide adequate services to its multiplying urbanites.

Problems like provision of social services and municipal infrastructure keeps compounding causing thereby ever-increasing incidence of clogging in mobility of the citizens.

Challenge nevertheless awaits, which will require a sustained struggle for organizing agricultural, industrial and commercial productivity increase, entailing massive investment in industrial and ancillary, physical and social infrastructure to raise the standard of life of the ordinary citizens of Pakistan.

During the last century growth in urban population of this part of the world has been indicated in Table-1.

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URBAN GROWTH IN PAKISTAN DURING THE LAST CENTURY GROWTH

Year 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1972 1981 1991 2001

Popul-ation

1.619 1.689 2.058 2.769 4.015 6.019 9.654 16.594 23.841 34.660 47.500

Cities of the developing world are growing at an extremely rapid pace.

Millions of people are migrating each year from rural to urban areas,

even though much of the largest cities have, for all practical

purposes, given up trying to provide more than minimal sanitation,

health, housing, and transportation services to their dense

populations.

Many cities are destined to become substantially larger in the years to

come. It will be appreciated from Table-1 that the urbanization has

been at high pace during the last three decades. More specifically the

growth in big cities has been tremendous from 1972 to 2001.

TABLE-1(Figures in millions)

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GROWTH OF CITIES IN PAKISTAN

A comparison of urbanization during the same period in top 10 big cities of Pakistan is given in Table-2.

Sr. No.

City 1972 1981 1998 2001*

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Karachi

Lahore

Faisalabad

Rawalpindi

Hyderabad

Multan

Gujranwala

Peshawar

Sialkot

Sargodha

3515

2176

823

615

629

539

324

272

204

200

5208

2953

1104

795

752

732

601

566

302

291

9329

5144

2009

1410

1167

1197

1132

988

421

459

10308

5656

2081

1458

1197

1232

1174

1020

429

471

TABLE-2(Figures in 000)

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NEED BASED INITIATIVES OF URBAN TRANSPORT PLANNING IN MAIN CITIES

Rapid urban migration has remained high over last three decades primarily because the rural population was also growing at higher pace. As a result rural poverty worsened and urban wages remained higher.

Push and pull factors were so strong that migration trend remained unchanged growing unemployment, increasing social and infrastructural problems and causing urban transportation issues in the newly grown pockets. In such areas citizens priority has always been safe, efficient and affordable urban transport.

Karachi City, a port city and gateway to Pakistan, already had transport facilities besides road mobility viz. tram and circular railway.

All other newly emerging cities have not been able to develop their infrastructure and urban transportation system besides mixed and slow modes of transportation until recently when PSP franchise bus induction given new opening to urban transport in such cities.

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NEED BASED INITIATIVES …

Urban transport problems for Karachi City and Lahore City are

peculiar and different from the rest of the big cities. Both are above

5 million persons and have gone through thorough transport

surveys / feasibilities, master planning etc. and have a lot planning

and design exercise down the road.

On the infrastructure side, Pakistan in 2003-2004 had about 255,856

Km of road network both rural & urban.

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ROAD NETWORK IN PAKISTAN

High Type Low Type Total

157,955 97,881 255,856

The low type is predominantly rural track constructed over last two

decades for providing rural-urban mobility link at the demand either for

farm to market roads or accessing facilities to the outreach pockets.

Whereas, the chunk for urban transport or intra-city routes has been

not more than 2.0% of the High Type track. The urban transport

infrastructure has still to go a long way for facilitating the citizens with

mobility options.

In KMs

MAIN CITIES WITH POPULATION

ABOVE 5 MILLION INHABITANTS

PLANNING WORKS IN THE PAST,

CURRENT SITUATION AND FUTURE PLANS FOR

LAHORE CITY AND KARACHI CITY

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LAHORE CITY

Lahore City is the second largest city of Pakistan and capital of Punjab.

About 22% of the total urban population in Punjab resides here.

During 1972-2001, its population has grown tremendously from 2.176 million persons to current level of 5.656 million inhabitants.

It has always remained center of many push and pull factors in the province.

Besides expansion in the trade and construction sector yielding opportunities for the employability of rural migrants having comparatively better social facilities. However, with passage of time, this city also required needed development in infrastructure and spread of municipal services for maintaining its services’ levels.

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Provision for urban commuters also got new considerations

beyond slow, mixed and even animal driven carriages called

‘tonga’. Urban bus and para transit operators grew from few

dozens to hundreds.

In the past, the issue of public transport remained in isolation from

emphasis on side by side improvements in its road network

differentials.

During the period of population explosion, the Punjab Road

Transport Board (PRTB) / Punjab Urban Transport Corporation

(PRTC) services could not match with the new challenges.

LAHORE CITY…

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Its mere dependence on public finance and built-in inefficiencies in

its operations ended its life. Its inter-city and intra-city operations

once serving whole Punjab ended with debenture loaning from the

Punjab Government as welfare liability. Nevertheless, the aforesaid

institution had single focus on public transport or operation and

maintenance of ‘buses fleet’.

While all other related issues like development and maintenance of

roads, traffic engineering and management, dealing with

encroachments, building line control and parking etc., were treated

in isolation.

LAHORE CITY…

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Inspite of these constraints, it had through first ever-comprehensive study of Lahore City transport issues for future direction.

◙ Model Urban Transport System:

◙ Lahore Urban Development and Traffic Study:

As a matter of transition over the period of learning by doing, the emphasis merely on operation and management of transport fleet stands now shifted to comprehensive urban transport planning within its true perspective.

The Integrated Master Plan for Lahore estimates operation of about one million vehicles on city roads including 46% cars and 44% two wheelers.

Traffic growth over last decade remained 3.75%. The highest was in small buses at 9.63%.

LAHORE CITY…

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On franchise routes, there are six private operators both domestic and foreign with 631 buses having collective investment of $28 million. These figures highlight the composition of the traffic and rising trend of commuters’ needs and new role of private sector which was previously dormant in operation and maintenance.

Secondly, the current public sector investments in the urban transport sector focuses on road network capacity improvement, new roads, management of road maintenance, traffic engineering and management, construction of terminals, mass rapid transits, parking, road safety and capacity building.

Thirdly, the preliminary work is also under way on two rapid mass transit mega projects viz. Construction of Ring Road and Lahore Light Rail Transit Project.

LAHORE CITY…

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KARACHI CITY

Karachi is the largest city of Pakistan and the provincial capital of Sindh with an approximate population of 12 million spreading over an area of 100 square km.

With enormous rise in population from 35 million citizens in 1972 to 103 million persons in 2001, due to urban migration from other provinces and regions, pressure on public transport has mounted manifold.

Several residential colonies of middle and urban class people have emerged in the suburban areas of Karachi.

Demand for public transport can be judged from the fact that almost every bus is jam-packed during peak hours.

A recent assessment of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (2003) about Karachi traffic is that it has increased at 11% per year against annual urban growth at 6% per cent.

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KARACHI CITY…

Being a port city and mini Pakistan in itself, the transport system in

Karachi City has always been important for economic activity.

Its transport system caters for above 5 million commuters daily.

Karachi has also learnt from its experiences over the years. In the

early days, with less population pressure, its tram and circular

railway was great source of convenience to the commuters.

As the metropolitan grew with population explosion, much of its

glory ended with deterioration in the public transport. Even during

the preceding years, supplementary modes of transport like

coaches started to ply but were unable to meet the demand of the

citizens.

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Efforts for improving the metropolitan urban transport facility are

as old as the problems.

The Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC), like PRTB / PUTC in

Punjab, was also responsible institution for urban commuters

facilities.

Like Lahore, it also ended into higher levels of operating cost, one

third expenditure on maintenance of fleet, 20% over heads and

annual loss building at a rate of above 21%.

Presently, transit system comprises mainly of buses, mini-buses,

coaches and contract carriers (also buses) that are operated by the

private sector.

KARACHI CITY…

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KARACHI CITY…

There are 403 classified routes on paper, out of which only 240 are

operative as indicated.

◙ Transport Sector Study and Subsequent Master Plans:

◙ Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) Initiatives:

◙ Tram track length 12 Km was dismantled in 1975

◙ Karachi City has its Circular Railway (KCR) comprising 30 Km

single line track with 16 stations.

◙ Karachi Mass Transit study was conducted during the period

1987-91.

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The proposed Karachi Mass Transit System has a focus on

dedicated rapid transit system to facilitate commercial & residential

development and minimize duplication / over lapping in public

transport routes to maximize the rider-ship through integration of

various modes.

The City District Government Karachi is trying to negotiate with

domestic and international firms the construction of Corridor-I of

the KMTP light transit rail at a cost of $600 million on build-operate-

transfer (BOT) basis.

KARACHI CITY…

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The existing public transport system in Karachi has limited ability

to cope with the increasing travel demand of those who depend on

it. More buses are also being inducted.

The Scania bus from Sweden has been allowed to import duty free

300 large city buses to start its operation in the city of their choice

in Pakistan.

These buses are to be equipped with Euro II technology and the

import of these buses would be followed by Local Assembly of

these buses in Pakistan.

KARACHI CITY…

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KARACHI CITY…

A domestic private operator has already launched operation on franchise routes with 32 scania buses. Further, the franchise routes have been offered to 5 companies who have so far inducted 133 buses, whereas ultimate induction by year 2004 would be 300.

The scheme was announced in September 2003. As a result of this announcement, 13 more companies are expected to be qualified.

Other significant initiatives for the improvement of urban transport in Karachi City include reassessment of public transport fleet needs, construction of useful infrastructure reducing commuters time (including overhead express ways and bus terminals etc.), registration of private operators capable of operating atleast 25 buses, introduction of CNG buses, strengthening of legal regulatory mechanism and other concessional incentives in infrastructure facilities for the private operators.

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POPULATION ABOVE 1 MILLION (FAISALABAD, RAWALPINDI, HYDERABAD, MULTAN, GUJRANWALA & PESHAWAR)

Urban areas all over the world play major part in the economic development of their cities.

Transport sector in other Pakistani cities has not received so far the due attention.

Besides Karachi and Lahore City, there is also demand for viable urban transport facilities.

During the next ten years, other cities in Pakistan where mass transit system will become a compelling necessity are Rawalpindi / Islamabad, Faisalabad, Multan, Sialkot-Gujranwala-Daska Industrial complex, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawab Shah, Peshawar and Quetta.

There is also need for perspective planning in these cities to institutionalize the transport planning process and have progressive execution plans for each of the above-mentioned city.

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POPULATION ABOVE 1 MILLION (FAISALABAD, RAWALPINDI, HYDERABAD, MULTAN, GUJRANWALA & PESHAWAR)

Except for Karachi City, which is a port city and gateway to Pakistan, and already had transport facilities besides road mobility viz. tram and circular railway, all other newly emerging cities have not been able to develop their infrastructure and urban transportation system besides mixed and slow modes of transportation mainly with the collaboration of private sector.

Provincial Transport Corporations in Punjab, Sindh and NWFP (later that in Sindh was changed into Karachi Transport Corporation and that in Punjab was changed into Punjab Urban Transport Corporation) which was created in 1970 when the West Pakistan Transport Corporation was dismembered, closed its operation in the mid 90s.

Provincial Transport departments, Provincial Transport authorities and Regional Transport Authorities administrate transport services provided by private operators in terms of registration of cargo and passengers transport, route selection and fare structure of passenger transport.

After the devolution in 2001, now the City / district governments are responsible for urban transport at the local level.

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PSP IN URBAN TRANSPORT AND FRANCHISE EXPERIENCE

The franchise experience in Punjab has been largely successful.

However, the change over to a large size franchise from small sized

transporters (wagons and bus owners) has not been smooth.

The small sized transporters fiercely opposed the franchise despite

the fact that they were allocated alternative routes without a permit

fee for one year.

Thus, a Local Government issue had to be resolved at the highest

levels.

The concerned RTA finally issued a notice to the transport

company operating on the franchised route for its inability to

accommodate the passenger load.

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PSP IN URBAN TRANSPORT AND FRANCHISE EXPERIENCE…

On the other hand, the transport company maintains that it was not

given enough time to make appropriate arrangements and frame a

strategy to cope with the load on the route.

But there is private-sector-participation in the urban transport

sector, on a fairly substantial scale.

Despite the deficiencies, the private-sector-participation is able to

exist in the given environment. Large scale private-sector-

participation (including mass transit projects) will need greater

definition in the regulatory arena together with well-defined laws in

order to fare successfully in this sector.

A picture of urban transport franchise is given Table-4.

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TRANSPORT FRANCHISE IN PAKISTAN

Sr. No. City No. of Operators No. of buses under operation

1. Lahore City 6 6312. Multan 1 813. Faisalabad 2 2004. Rawalpindi 1 1505. Gujranwala 1 25

Sub- total 11 1087

6. Karachi City 5 300

In Punjab, so far, 11 operators have been awarded franchise routes allowing operation of 1083 busses with a collective invest of domestic and foreign investor to the tune of $ 47.63 million. An other 1000 buses will further be inducted on franchise routes very soon. On the successful implementation of urban transport franchise scheme in Punjab, similar efforts have been made to introduce it in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Peshawar. In Karachi, the scheme was announced through press in July 2002. As a result, 14 transport companies were qualified for induction of new large buses. Up till now, operational agreement has been signed with 5 companies who have so far inducted 133 buses, whereas ultimate induction would be 300.

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ISSUES OF TRANSPORT PLANNING IN PAKISTAN AND COUNTER MEASURES

Lack of vision and innovative thinking compatible to emerging challenging demand of urban transportation;Lack of regulatory mechanism and institutional capacity for enforcing urban commuters needs while deciding about capacity improvement initiatives like alignments and insufficient & inconsistent road widths etc.;Lack of capacity to formulate comprehensive, cost effective and suitable to local condition a mass transit plan which finds its acceptability and utility among all the stakeholders; Lack of financial resources for updating master Transport planning exercises back to back and refresh the feasibilities of mega projects as envisaged thereunedr e.g. LTR; andLack of expertise to prepare transport sector mass transit proposals on the basis of alternative modes of financing other than public finance. Lack of transport planning and design capacity with provincial and district governments.

PART-III

EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS ON URBAN

TRANSPORT

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EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM

The constitution of Pakistan does not contain any express provision for Urban Transport in the federal or concurrent legislative lists, thereby leaving this sector in the domain of the provincial governments.

Further, as a part of the devolution initiative, the Local Government Ordinance 2001 provides that the city district governments may perform all or any of the transport related functions including:

◙ City-wide inter-town public transport and mass-transit system;

◙ Transportation terminals, transit stations for transport freight;

◙ Construction of city expressways, major streets, bridges, flyovers and underpasses and traffic management; and

◙ Traffic planning, engineering and management including parking facilities.

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EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM

At the Karachi and Lahore City level, both have their own distinct apparatus for the provision of urban transport by the public and private sectors jointly. In other urban centers / cities, the district governments take the benefit of regulations for urban transportation as defined in the Provincial Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 and Motor Vehicle Rules 1969. In case of private sector participation (PSP), it is usually based on the licensing of routes by the concerned public sector authority.In the case of Karachi, the regulatory authority was intended to merge a number of organizations including the Karachi Mass Transit Cell, the Traffic Engineering Bureau, the Regional Transport Authority, Motor Vehicles Fitness and the Driving Licence Branches within a single authority. The said authority is also intended to be responsible for traffic management, planning and operations including traffic engineering, control and operations, and safety. Further, it follows, as a natural corollary that the enforcement of Urban Transport legislation and any violations thereof would need to be reviewed jointly with the Provincial police mechanism to ensure proper enforcement.

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EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM

The Provincial Governments are responsible for provincial transport. The Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965 envisages creation of a two tier regulatory regime. It envisages the creation of a Provincial Transport Authority at the Provincial level and Regional Transport Authorities (RTA) at the district level. Provincial Transport Authority consists of the Secretary Transport Department who is ex-officio Chairman of the Authority, Secretary Communication and Works Department, Chief (Transport) Planning and Development Department, and Deputy Inspector General of Police (Traffic), who are members of the Provincial Transport Authority. The functions of Provincial Transport Authority are:◙ To coordinate and regulate the activities and policies of the RTA's;◙ To settle all disputes and decide all matters on which differences of

opinion arise between the RTA's;◙ Classification of inter-provincial routes of transport vehicles; and◙ Grant/Renewal of route permits to transport vehicles on inter-

provincial routes and air-conditioned vehicles on inter-regional routes and grant/countersigning of permits of goods vehicles, etc.

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EXISTING LAWS AND REGULATIONS PERTAINING TO THE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM

As per Motor Vehicle Ordinance, there are-RTA's in each district of a Province. The District Coordination Officer of each district is the ex officio Chairman of the RTA. District Police Officer (DPO) and Executive District Officer (Works & Services) are the members of the RTA at any district. The functions of the RTA are:◙ To regulate few sport within their respective jurisdiction by assigning traffic

needs of .passengers and the transport of goods;◙ To grant, issue and renew route permits to the transport vehicles plying in

the District;◙ To classify various routes within region;◙ To prepare time and fare-tables of public service vehicles;◙ To issue and renew licenses to body building workshops;◙ Checking of traffic in their respective jurisdictions; and◙ To grant licenses for bus stands.

At a third level, Urban Transport Sector is also regulated by the Department of Transport with functions like (i)formulation of transport policy and planning; (ii)administration of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance and the rules framed there under; (iii)administration of PTA, RTA's and Road Transport Corporations (dissolved); and (iv)regulation of fares of public service vehicles.

PART-IV

SUPPLEMENTS ANALYSIS,

OBSTACLES TO DEVELOPMENT

IN THE URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR

ALONG WITH A VISION

FOR THE FUTURE

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PROBLEMS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR AND SUGGESTIONS.

The multiplicity and complexity of urban transport problems vary from area to area. Between big metropolitan cities and less populated cities, there is sharp contrast of difference. However, in general, people face in urban areas both qualitative and quantitative inadequacy of urban transport services. In the larger cities like Karachi and Lahore, the congestion is severe and the average time taken to travel to work has increased many folds. In other cities congestion is threatening to become severe. The slow traffic and mix, encroachments, frequent accidents and parking on roads are part of the problem. The bus services are often inadequate and of poor quality, due to regulation and low fares. The growing pollution and safety hazards have also increased. There is also women mobility issue.

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PROBLEMS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR AND SUGGESTIONS - STUDIES

Modal diversity of traffic with vehicles having low capacity playing a major role: motorcycles and bicycles share the majority of the total traffic and the majority of the urban public transportation is mini buses and coaches;

Inefficient, overcrowded, unreliable transport services and lack of standard of quality and services;

Road side encroachment;

Poor alignment and insufficient and inconsistent road width;

Lack of investment for maintenance and up-gradation of facilities such as traffic signals, roads and sidewalk, intersections, parking space, drain against urban expansion and traffic growth;

Poor capacity of regulatory agencies and poor enforcement of regulations; and

Absence of an Integrated Mass Transport System with appropriate f incentives for the private sector.

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PROBLEMS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR AND SUGGESTIONS

There is a need for a comprehensive national transport policy with specific mention to the urban transport issues in Pakistan.

In this regard, Technical Assistance from Asian Development Bank amounting to US$290,000 financed by the Government of Japan has been announced in the third week of October 2004.

The ADB will assist the Government of Pakistan in formulation of a comprehensive national transport policy that represents the interests of all stakeholders.

It is expected that special focus would be addressed to urban transport issues;

There is need for development of an integrated mass transit system through proper investments, capacity improvement, institutional strengthening and building public-private partnership;

Large size, multi-axle 46 seater buses should be encouraged for the overall efficiency of the urban transport system;

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PROBLEMS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT IN URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR AND SUGGESTIONS.

Franchise of urban routes has proved that private sector has the

capabilities to operate and maintain urban transport buses.

This experience needs to be replicated in the non served big cities

with appropriate incentives for the private sector;

Strengthening the regulatory and legal frameworks to empower the

law enforcement in its true spirit;

Development of new mass transits, improvement and maintenance

management of road network and other essential urban transport

related infrastructure points like bus terminals and bays etc.

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FUTURE ASPECTS-URBAN TRANSPORT SECTOR VISION

Any visionary government will ensure reliable, affordable, preferably quick, convenient and comfortable urban transport services for its citizens.

The Provincial Government in Punjab Province is dully conscious of the citizens transportation needs.

In its Punjab’s Vision Punjab 2020, the Punjab Government has committed for improvement in urban transport sector.

The Punjab Government and City District Government Lahore have initiated efforts to provide Light Rail Transit facility and construct mass transit for the citizens.

Further, the Government of Pakistan and Government of Sindh in collaboration with City District Government Karachi have pledged their efforts to restore, as soon as possible, the Karachi Circular Railway and construct new corridors of mass transit.

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PUNJAB PROVINCE

The Punjab Government in collaboration with China International Overseas Engineering Corporation is working these days on Lahore Light Rail Project.

It would serve citizens at 18 stations as an additional transport facility having 18 Km rail track predominantly viaduct (13 Km) on the most feasible and populous city links. Train would marshal in city with four vehicles 78 meter long with carrying capacity of 900 passengers.

It is expected that the project would be implemented by 2020 and this This innovation in mass transit would go long way in modernizing modes of public transportation.

Besides infrastructure development initiatives for capacity improvement, the Ring Road around the City has been initiated in phases as a major element of the Transportation Master Plan.

It would cater for distribution of the traffic on the radial road network of Lahore City. and serve cross suburban by passable traffic movements.

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SINDH PROVINCE

Restoration of the Karachi Circular Railway is on priority to revitalize the public transport facility to 6 million annual passengers on the track.In Karachi City transit-ways would be designed and built as bus-ways convertible to light rails. The transit ways network was translated into the Mass Transit Master Plan comprising of six priority corridors. The technology being considered for Karachi City could be Monorail, Light Rail Transit, Magnetic Levitating Train (Maglev) depending upon the suitability of the system to Karachi environment and the availability of financing of the project by the BOT operator. The salient features of the proposed Karachi Mass Transit System have been underlined as dedicated Rapid Transit System to facilitate commercial & residential development, minimize duplication / over lapping in public transport routes, and maximize rider-ship by integration of various modes.