Now No More Traveling in Local Buses

We as students go through the tough environments of life and for us, travelling in the local buses run by the private transporters is the worst part of our daily lives. Not only for students but for the professionals too. In Pakistan, obsolete and outdated long vehicles are still in use today regardless of the high fuel consumption and low passenger safety care.

I have personally experienced travelling in the local buses in the Hyderabad City of Sindh. The buses are almost the same that run on the roads of Karachi as “W11” (Dubblew Giyarah). Most of the buses have the traditional Pakistani truck art and are decorated with LED lights, nano pieces of glass, steel, and wood. The white star and the crescent moon are the main component in the Pakistani truck art predicting its origin. The display of birds and animal horns is also seen on the hoods of a few buses.

The addition of the stylish visuals, colourful paintings on the body, portraits of national heroes, full engraved bold quotations and poetry in the provincial language further highlights the culture of the Pakistani people. All the components and handwork on the body of the truck are done by the special body makers who put in day and night to show their creativity and talent. Additionally, some of the buses are very high-tech that include an infotainment system too. These buses are the source of attraction for all of us and, tourists, but I love those.

In the same place, the trucks are outdated in a way that, they consume a lot of diesel as fuel and have very high maintenance costs as compared to the next generation buses. The old coaches are not much safe because of the poor maintenance and unlicensed drivers. That’s why Pakistan faces more accidents on its roads due to the unsafe provision of long vehicles to untrained drivers. Most of the buses leave oil spills and smoke fumes inside the cabin that passengers suffer while breathing. As far as I know, the smoky fumes are hot blows that a person who is allergic to or has asthma may not bear it.

It's dirty to have the blows of black and white smoke on our faces. Motorcyclists suffer the most who don’t wear helmets and if they wear them, they face suffocation while driving. As far as I know, most motorcyclists have acne problems and other skin issues. The global warming and scorching heat of the sun in the major cities of Pakistan have forced us to retire those old machines and bring up environmentally friendly vehicles that are not only cost-effective but will also save us from the global heat issue.

Besides the several efforts put forward by the public and the government, the rotting economy of the country resisted the government to take severe measures to tackle the transportation problem and cope with the pollution produced by those scrap engines. Now, the ban of the old buses in Karachi is no more a rumour as the Sindh transport department has announced to ban ancient buses in Karachi after the completion of mass transit projects.

A mass transit system (MTS) is an intelligent system that helps to reduce the growing congestion between the routes and provides a smooth flow of human traffic. After the successful completion and business operation of the Green Line BRT bus service in Karachi. Sindh government has also announced to spread the same service in Hyderabad City.

I visited Karachi’s Greenline BRT via an academic visit to the BRT's Operational Command and Control Center at Garden West, Karachi. The 24 billion rupees bus rapid transit system is owned and operated by Karachi Breeze. The 26 km (16.2 miles) busway is the first phase of the Karachi Metrobus network and has 22 stations (a station after every km). Currently, Green Line has 80 buses in its fleet operated by Daewoo express which is the leading business group in transport management. Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit project. Limited operations began on 25 December 2021. Although, business seems to be rapidly growing with a big boom. And I think that this is the time when the administration must understand the needs of its people and propose more high-tech plans for the future of the cities.

BRT’s Zhongtong buses have smart specifications and intelligent based systems that relate to Telecom and data centres for efficient management. The telecommunication services have made possible the proper “The Energy Management System” in which system keeps a record of the passenger's timely arrival, and electricity costs. The database helps transport officers to change the frequency of the buses during peak hours.

This Chinese Metrobus offer a comfortable and healthy environment through the disinfection system fitted on the backside of each bus. It has excellent Air conditioning systems, mobile charging ports, maintenance services, POS machines and Wi-Fi networks for the public. Moreover, the bus is a Hybrid vehicle that saves fuel costs by consuming diesel and charges batteries for use simultaneously. Buses can give them mileage of 3+ KM per litre of diesel. That was what we observed while travelling on those buses.

Recently, the Information Minister of Sindh, Sharjeel Inam Memon has said that the provincial government has put forward its final decision to ban local buses in the cities of Sindh to the representative associations of the operators of public transport services. He also said that work on the Orange Line BRT project is almost completed, and the project would be launched by the end of June of 2022. And we also hope that it would be opened to the public very soon.