PESHAWAR: Over half of the 85,000 rickshaws in the provincial capital are operating without any permits as the narrow streets of the city are clogged with some seven million vehicles. The situation was exacerbated by the absence of adequate public parking space in the city, particularly near markets.
This was disclosed by Traffic SSP Kashif Zulfikar and Traffic Headquarters SP Fazal Ahmad Jan as they presented a report on vehicles in the city to the district council.
The report noted that of the seven million cars on the roads of the city, around 1.115 million of these were motorbikes while around 85,300 cars were plying on the roads.
Moreover, there were around 85,000 rickshaws in the city but only 35,000 of these had permits.
They hoped that the congestion on the city’s roads would be resolved once the mass transit project, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is completed over the next three months with the project’s completion not only allowing a number of roads where construction is taking place to be reopened for traffic but would also help lower the vehicular burden on the roads as people opt for the mass transit system to commute rather than using their own vehicles.
Peshawar Nazim Asim Khan said that permission to around 23 per cent of plazas in the city had been denied because their layout plans did not include allocations for car-parks.
He further warned that they will soon take action against all illegal bus stands, car parks which have sprung up in the city. Those vehicles which are plying in the city without the requisite permits will also face action.
The traffic police officials said that they were in the process of installing closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) across the city to keep an eye on the traffic situation on all thoroughfares and key intersections. This system, they explained, would help them spot and then quickly address any emerging traffic issues.
The two officers also told the elected members of the district council that there were just 1,394 traffic cops deployed on various intersections of the city. Despite their meagre number, they said that they were trying their utmost to control traffic on some 200 roads and intersections in the city. In this regard, they said that they had issued tickets to some members of the provincial and the national assembly for violating traffic laws.
One of the biggest hurdles faced by the traffic police officials in regulating traffic was the presence of encroachment, illegal bus stands, car parks and vehicles which lack route permits.
The traffic police officials urged the district, town and other local government representatives to cooperate them in an operation against these elements.
Moreover, they said that they had taken up the matter of an illegal, temporary car-park set up in front of the emergency ward gate of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) with the Cantonment Board authorities and the issue is expected to be resolved soon.
The Leader of the Opposition in the District Council Syed Mohammad Zahir, Sartaj Khan, Kamran, Rahamdil Nawaz, Alamzeb and treasury members including Taqdir Ali, Liaquat Ali, Shamsul Bari, Ashgar Khan, Rehman Afzal, Saeed Afridi, Iftikhar Ali and others demanded that the LRH Emergency Gate for general traffic should be reopened to resolve the traffic problem.
They added that people are facing difficulties in shifting patients to the hospital, therefore, the traffic police and the district government should take action in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2018.
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Original news : https://tribune.com.pk/story/1869119/1-clogged-streets-half-peshawars-rickshaws-plying-without-permits/