SINGAPORE-REPUBLIC OF KOREA
THIRD COUNTRY TRAINING PROGRAMME
COUNTRY REPORT
Prepared by
Mr. Muhammad Ahsan Raja
Secretary to the Government of Punjab
Planning & Development Department
Lahore - Pakistan
MAP OF PAKISTAN
2004
2
List of Contents
Sr. No.
Subject
Page
Part-I
1. Information regarding Provincial Planning Machinery of
Government of the Punjab i.e. Planning & Development
Department
2. Brief account of organizational functions of Planning &
Development Department
3. Organization chart (mentioning the position of course
participant)
Part-II
4.
Present status and future prospects of Pakistan relevant to the
urban transport:
4.1 Over view of urbanization in Pakistan
4.2 Growth of cities in Pakistan
4.3
Need based initiatives of urban transport planning in main
cities:
i. With population above 5 million inhabitants
(Karachi & Lahore); and
ii. With population above 1 million inhabitants
(Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Hyderabad, Multan,
Gujranwala and Peshawar)
4.4 PSP in urban transport and franchise experience.
4.5 Issues of transport planning in Pakistan and counter
measures
Part-III
5.
Existing laws and regulations pertaining to the urban transport
system
6. Problems hindering development in urban transport sector and
suggestions.
Part-IV
7. Future aspects - urban transport sector vision
3
INTRODUCTION
This report on Urban Transport Planning &
Design in Pakistan has been prepared in partial
fulfillment of the requirements of the short course
‘Singapore – Republic of Korea Third Country Training
Programme: Urban Transport Planning & Design’.
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; whereas,
Part-III
has
regulations
information
on
urban
on
existing
transport;
laws
and
and
Part-IV
supplements analyses, obstacles to development in
the urban transport sector alongwith a vision for the
future.
4
Part-I
1. 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, which I head as its Secretary,
is a department of the provincial government of the province of the Punjab,
where more than 55% of the people of Pakistan live.
2. FUNCTIONS OF THE 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. In more specific
terms, the major functions of the Planning & Development Department are:

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
5
3.

Economic policy issues

Research in economic issues

Foreign training

Foreign Assistance

Implementation of foreign assisted/ funded projects
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.
A detailed Organogram of the department is attached.
6
Part-II
4.
PAKISTAN – A DEVELOPING COUNTRY FROM SOUTH ASIA
Pakistan
is
one
of
the
South
Asian
countries
having
four
provinces-Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province with
spread over 796095 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 $12.5billion;

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
$1.00billion during the current financial year;

Privatization programme momentum gained gross proceeds on
offer of shares against public corporates above $2.2billion;

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%.
7
4.1
Over view 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. Further,
if the narrow roads are get clogged with endless stream of smoke
emitting vehicles, then, option for inducting circular rail etc becomes
inevitable. Basically 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. Naturally the growth in the cities is beyond the
ability of developing governments to provide adequate services to its
multiplying urbanites. As a result, the 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.
Table-1: URBAN GROWTH IN PAKISTAN
(Figures in million)
Year
1901
1911
1921
1931
1941
1951
1961
1972
1981
1991
2001
Popul- 1.619 1.689 2.058 2.769 4.015 6.019 9.654 16.594 23.841 34.660 47.500
ation
8
‘The 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. As large as these cities are today, many 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.
4.2
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.
Table-2: GROWTH OF BIG CITIES IN PAKISTAN
(Population in ‘000’)
Sr
No.
City
1972
1981
1998
2001*
1.
Karachi
3515
5208
9329
10308
2.
Lahore
2176
2953
5144
5656
3.
Faisalabad
823
1104
2009
2081
4.
Rawalpindi
615
795
1410
1458
5.
Hyderabad
629
752
1167
1197
6.
Multan
539
732
1197
1232
7.
Gujranwala
324
601
1132
1174
8.
Peshawar
272
566
988
1020
9.
Sialkot
204
302
421
429
10.
Sargodha
200
291
459
471
* Estimated
9
4.3 Need based initiatives of urban transport planning in main cities
It will be noted in Table-2 that the 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. But the 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. 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 until recently when PSP franchise bus
induction given new opening to urban transport in such cities. It will be
further noted that 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 as per detail in Table-3.
Table-3: ROAD NETWORK IN PAKISTAN
(Figures in Km)
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
10
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.
4.3.1
Main cities with population above 5 million inhabitants
In this section briefly planning works in the past, current
situation and future plans have been discussed for Lahore City and
Karachi City.
4.3.1.1 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.
Further,
the
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. Nevertheless, 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, as mentioned earlier,
the Punjab Road Transport Board (PRTB) / Punjab Urban Transport
Corporation(PRTC) services could not match with the new challenges. 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
11
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. But inspite of these constraints, it had through
first ever-comprehensive study of Lahore City transport issues for future
direction.
a. Model Urban Transport System: In conjunction with induction of their
fleet in Lahore City, M/S Volvo out of Swedish grant carried out this first
most comprehensive study. It linked all the relevant issues of fleets
operation and maintenance with system design, technical facilities,
traffic management, land use and infrastructure and private sector
initiatives etc. It also included PUTC in its interface model as well. With
the Structure Plan for Lahore and Urban Development and Traffic
Management Programme for Lahore, this work added a useful
dimension for future planning and design. It recommended for sharing of
transport functions between the public and the private sector, so that the
mixed approach develops out in an organized system. It also entailed
useful strategy and implementation plan for implementation purposes.
b. Lahore Urban Development and Traffic Study: During 1980, the Lahore
Development Authority also had this study through M/S Halcrow Fox
and Associates, which hinted on traffic characteristics and issues
pertaining to public transport operation and management as well as
infrastructure and organization etc.. It recommended specifically for
traffic engineering which helped in the institutionalization of Traffic
Engineering & Planning Agency(TEPA) in Lahore City.
c. Comprehensive Study on Transportation System in Lahore: In 1990-91,
the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assisted TEPA
to carry out this master planning assignment. The study took advantage
of first ever 1.5% household sample survey throughout the metropolitan
12
area This study focused on socio-economic life in city, road network and
traffic, land use and infrastructure, master planning input studies etc.
One important project emerging out of this study is the ‘Light Rail Transit
Project’. The current Master Plan Study for Lahore City in transport
sector is a follow up of this.
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. It
states that traffic growth over last decade remained 3.75%. The highest was
in small buses at 9.63%. Further, on franchise routes, there are six private
operators both domestic and foreign with 631 buses having collective
investment of $28million.The aforementioned 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.
4.3.1.2 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
13
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. The 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. Being a
port city and mini Pakistan in itself, the transport system in Karachi City has
always been important for economic activity. Today its transport system caters for
above 5 million commuters daily. Over the years, Karachi has also learnt from its
experiences. 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. 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. But 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%. At present the transit system comprises mainly of buses, mini-buses,
coaches and contract carriers (also buses) that are operated by the private sector.
There are 403 classified routes on paper, out of which only 240 are operative as
indicated.
a. Transport Sector Study and Subsequent Master Plans: Faced with growing
menace of declining civic services due to higher levels of urbanization, the
Government of Pakistan had constituted a special commission to prepare a
Special Development Plan for the period of Sixth Five Year Plan(1983-88).
Inter-alia, it also proved an insight into its urban transport sector problems
through its transport sector study. This study pointed out inadequacies in the
KTC operations, status and use of transport fleet, available infrastructure and
also recommended an investment package. After the implementation of SDP,
14
many master planning exercises in the metropolitan transport sector have been
undertaken to improve the urban transport with its all differentials. Numerous
being the 1987-90 Karachi Mass Transit Study (World Bank), 1990-91 & 20012002 KCR Feasibility & its Revitalization Study and 1996-2001Light Rail Project
Priority Corridor-1.
b. Karachi Mass Transit Plan (KMTP) Initiatives: The history of Mass Transport
in Karachi City has been extremely chequered. All kinds of combinations have
been tried: wholly private, wholly public, joint public-private ventures and mixed
public and private sector operations. Public transport, in its good days, had only
been serving around 20% of the urban commuters. It was because of lacking
long term planning for mass transit.
- Tram track length 12 Km was dismantled in 1975, although the first Master
Plan had recommended it to be up-graded as a Metro.
- Karachi City has its Circular Railway (KCR) comprising 30 Km single line
track with 16 stations. It was constructed and opened for urban transportation
in 1964 and extended to Karachi City in 1970. KCR trains originating from
City Railway Station use to pass through important populated areas forming a
semi-circle, and then switching over to main line terminating at Karachi City,
thus forming a complete circle. Since it’s opening and up to early 80's the KCR
train services remained an important mode for urban commuters. Besides 24
services (both ways) operated on KCR, Pakistan Railways also operated
another 80 trains on the main line for its commuters. So, 104 trains daily used to
cater to the need of over six million commuters annually. The system now
stands deteriorated and closed for passengers operation since 1999. On
22.10.2004 in a joint meeting of Government of Pakistan, Government of Sindh
and City District Government Karachi, the Prime Minister of Pakistan has
decided to restore Karachi Circular Railways as quickly as possible.
Karachi Mass Transit study was conducted during the period 1987-91. As part of
die demand analysis, extensive traffic surveys were undertaken and after
15
detailed analysis and modeling, the travel demand forecasts were evaluated
which revealed mobility of the population at 5.26 million trips in 1988. Besides
parametric problems in estimation, the Demand Forecast Modeling reflected 13.1
million trips by the year 2000 demonstrating an alarming situation in increase of
trips per household. Since this demand is far above the possible capacity of
system, so the existing public transport is highly over crowded resulting delays,
road capacity restraints besides safety hazards, as well. This overcrowded
system is in need of a high capacity mass transit system along high travel
demand corridors. After a comprehensive study of various alternatives, the
study recommended building a 87 kms network of transit-ways in the major
traffic corridors of Karachi and its suburbs for exclusive use of Mass Transit
Vehicles.
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. 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. 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.
16
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.
4.3.2
With population above 1 million inhabitants (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
Sialkot-Gujranwala-Daska
/
Industrial
Islamabad,
Faisalabad,
Multan,
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.
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
ewas created in 1970 when the West Pakistan Transport Corporation was
dismembered, closed its operation in the mid 90s. Provincial Transport
17
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.
4.4
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. 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 PSP in the urban
transport sector, on a fairly substantial scale. Despite the deficiencies, the PSP is able to
exist in the given environment. Large scale PSP (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.
TABLE-4: TRANSPORT FRANCHISE IN PAKISTAN
Sr. No.
City
No. of
No. of buses under
Operators
operation
1.
Lahore City
6
631
2.
Multan
1
81
3.
Faisalabad
2
200
4.
Rawalpindi
1
150
5.
Gujranwala
1
25
11
1083
5
300
Sub- total
6.
Karachi City
18
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
Peshawear. 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.
4.5
Issues of transport planning in Pakistan and counter measures
(a) Lack of vision and innovative thinking compatible to emerging
challenging demand of urban transportation;
(b) 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.;
(c) 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;
(d) 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; and
(e) Lack of expertise to prepare transport sector mass transit proposals
on the basis of alternative modes of financing other than public
finance.
(f)
Lack of transport planning and design capacity with provincial and
district governments.
19
Part-III
5. 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:
i.
city-wide inter-town public transport and mass-transit system;
ii.
transportation terminals, transit stations for transport freight;
iii.
construction of city expressways, major streets, bridges, flyovers
and underpasses and traffic management; and
iv.
traffic planning, engineering and management including parking
facilities.
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. Further, in other urban centers / cities, the district
governments take the benefit of r egulations for urban transportation as
defined in the Provincial Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 and Motor Vehicle
Rules 1969. Incase 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,
20
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.
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. At present, the Provincial Transport Authority consists of
the Secretary Transport Department who is ex-officio Chairman of the
Authority,
Chief
Secretary
(Transport)
Communication
Planning
and
and
Works
Development
Department,
Department,
and
Deputy Inspector General of Police (Traffic), who are members of the
Provincial Transport Authority. The functions of Provincial Transport
Authority are:
(ii)
to coordinate and regulate the activities and policies of the RTA's;
(iii) to settle all disputes and decide all matters on which differences of
opinion arise between the RTA's;
(iv) classification of inter-provincial routes of transport vehicles; and
(v) grant/renewal of route permits to transport vehicles on interprovincial routes and air-conditioned vehicles on inter-regional
routes and grant/countersigning of permits of goods vehicles, etc.
21
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:
(i). to regulate few sport within their respective jurisdiction by
assigning traffic needs of .passengers and the transport of
goods;
(ii).to grant, issue and renew route permits to the transport
vehicles plying in the District;
(iii) to classify various routes within region;
(iv). to prepare time and fare-tables of public service vehicles;
(v). to issue and renew licenses to body building workshops;
(vi). checking of traffic in their respective jurisdictions; and
(vii).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.
22
6.
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.
Specifically following issues in Pakistan have drawn attention of
many studies:a). 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;
b). Inefficient, overcrowded, unreliable transport services and lack of
standard of quality and services;
c). Road side encroachment;
d). Poor alignment and insufficient and inconsistent road width;
e). 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;
f). Poor capacity of regulatory agencies and poor enforcement of
regulations; and
g). Absence of an Integrated Mass Transport System with appropriate f
incentives for the private sector.
23
To address the above said deficiencies in the urban transport
system following measure are suggested:-
1. 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;
2. There is need for development of an integrated mass transit system
through
proper
investments,
capacity
improvement,
institutional
strengthening and building public-private partnership;
3. Large size, multi-axle 46 seater buses should be encourage for the
overall efficiency of the urban transport system;
4. 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;
5. Strengthening the regulatory and legal frameworks to empower the law
enforcement in its true spirit;
6. 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.
24
Part-IV
7.
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.
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
infrastruture
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
25
of Lahore City.and serve cross suburban by passable traffic
movements.
SINDH PROVINCE :
-
Restoration of the Karachi Circular Railway is on priority to
revitalize the public transport facity 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.
26
REFERENCES
1.
Government of Pakistan, Pakistan Economic Survey 2003-2004;
2.
World Development Report, 2003
3.
Michael P.Todaro & Jerry Stilkind, City Bias and Rural Neglect : The Dilemma
of Urban Development, The Population council, USA, 1981.
4.
Government of Pakistan, Description and Diagnosis of the national Human
Settlements system, 1982.
5.
Government of Pakistan, Development of Statistics, Bureau of Statistics,
Punjab, 2002.
6.
Government of Punjab, Statistical Pocket Book of Punjab, Bureau of
Statistics, 2002.
7.
Lahore Model Urban Transport System – Volume-I, II, III, IV, V & VI, Volvo
International Development Corporation, 1980.
8.
Comprehensive Study on Transportation System in Lahore, Japan
International Cooperation Agency, 1991.
9.
Integrated master Plan for Lahore, National Engineering Services Pakistan,
2004.
10.
Pakistan Transport Sector Study, Japan Bank for International Cooperation,
2003.
11.
Government
of
Pakistan,
Transport
Sector
Study Karachi,
Special
Development Programme, 1978-83.
12.
City District Government Karachi:
i.
Implementation of Karachi Mass Transit Plan, 2003;
ii. Karachi Urban Transport Scheme Induction of large Buses on
Urban Routes, 2003;and
iii. Development of Local Terminal Facilities, 2003.
13.
Government of Punjab, Punjab’s Vision 2020, 2004.
14.
Pakistan News Service, Karachi Circular Railways to be Restored Soon,
October 22, 2004.
15. Associated Press of Pakistan, Karachi Mass Transit Plan Review Meeting
held, September 26, 2004.
16. Asian Development Bank Press Release, ADB to Help Pakistan Formulate
National Transport Policy, Manila, Philippine, October 25, 2004.
27
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