Maddening traffic coming from all directions

Nargis Khanum

There are countless ways which cause traffic jams on Karachi’s roads. The main arteries are perpetually gridlocked. Buses, rickshaws, donkey-carts, cars, motorcycles crawl through the narrow but busy lanes network in the city’s many market places. Encroachment, open manholes, double-parking. Sit-ins and protest marches of political and religious groups. Public takeover of road-space to complain about power and water shortage. Lack of road sense and traffic rules. Mismanagement by the numerous departments and authorities running the city. Roads cleared for VIP movement causing pile-up and long wait for the held up vehicles. Slow pace of building flyovers and subways, road expansion and repair works. Ramazan road rage; diversions during Muharram.

All these en sure there will never be orderly traffic movement in this metropolis. In recent months, concerned citizens moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) through a constitutional petition against relevant authorities for failing to enforce the ban on the movement of heavy-duty vehicles during the day time. Another group of young citizens, who are members of the Fixit campaign, draw the attention of relevant authorities to solve some solvable problems, such as fitting lids on open manholes. Instead of resolving a problem, the relevant authorities see Fixit as on enemy and the Fixit fellows get beaten up for their trouble.

Karachiites feel nobody cares for them. Wrong. The real problem is that there are too many agencies, departments and authorities, like Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Clifton Cantonment Board (CCB); the police, transport and local government departments; Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA); the Mayor and the Commissioner; the building control authority; the Frontier Works department; K-Electric; Rangers. If you imagine Karachi as a big pie, each of these institutions only have a small piece of the pie. Actually, the poor mayor does not have even a small sliver, only some crumbs.

Karachi’s traffic problem result from the absence of a holistic solution. Traffic chaos is un-resolvable piecemeal. Plus, each authority, department or organization refuses to cooperate with any other. Overnight a main artery, in this case Khayaban-i-Jami is excavated for building a flyover to ease flow to traffic, especially heavy duty vehicles to the docks. Did they bother to plan how normal road users will manage in the meantime? And look at the timing: Ramazan is round the corner, so God help the drivers and their vehicles.

There is water shortage: who do you complain to? The Mayor? Sorry, he says, it is not his jurisdiction; go to the Commissioner. He says, ‘yes yes. We understand, we will see what can be done.’ Then he sleeps on the problem. There is no electricity: who do you complain to? The K-Electric? Yes, but in nine out of ten cases they pass the buck to the consumers. You steal power, you have illegal connections and so forth. Marches, protests and tyre burning on the roads may vent public anger but will not solve the power shortage.

There is a common idea why there are traffic jams. There are too many vehicles, it is said. And, of course, oil-tankers, long vehicles of the NLC. Now they also say there are too many motorcycles and few buses. These in themselves are not the problem, it is mismanagement that causes the traffic jams.

All major cities in the world have heavy traffic like Karachi. The solution is to permanently restrict the type of vehicles using a road. In Mumbai, one of the most traffic-heavy cities, only buses and motorcars are allowed on major arteries. Motorcycles, auto-rickshaws have to use by-lanes provided for the purpose. This has lead to smooth flow of the heavy traffic.

As for the fate of the constitutional petition filed by concerned citizens in the Sindh High Court against relevant authorities for failing to enforce the ban on movement of heavy-duty vehicles on roads during the day time, it only means these citizens have great faith in the judiciary to enforce the ban. What can a weak judiciary do? It can only rap the knuckles of the relevant authorities. It has no authority to impose the ban. And no relevant authority gives it more than lip service. For example, the DIG Traffic has imposed the ban for three months only.

So, dear fellow citizens, learn to live with the traffic problems. Take some nerve-calming medicine before you set out. Carry a bottle of water so you do not get dehydrated in the heat generated by the weather as well as the traffic congestion. And pray to God.