Minister orders to start checking safety measures in public transport

KARACHI: Provincial minister for information, transport and mass transit Sharjeel Inam Memon ordered to start checking safety measures in public transport, ARY News reported on Monday.

As per details, the Sindh minister presided over a meeting in which he ordered to start checking safety measures in public transport in the metropolis.

One-month deadline has been given to place fire extinguishers in school vans and coasters, the minister ordered.

Motorway police and city administration should jointly start the strict checking process in public transport vehicles in Karachi.

Sharjeel Memon further added, the permits of those transporters will be suspended if any of them didn’t abide by the law.

Earlier, according to a study by Shehri NGO, there are essentially 329 routes Karachi-wide where a public transit system needs to be in place while only 50 have buses on them, and that too, very few.

However, Karachi Transport Ittehad chairman Irshad Bukhari claims that some years back the volume of buses (including large buses, minibuses and wagons) was above 25,000.

“It has now shrunk to about 5,000 and we only run transport on some 50 routes.”