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KU seeks corporate help to solve transport problem
KARACHI, Dec 24, 2007: Thousands of students of the University of Karachi (KU)
risk daily their lives and endure a lot of inconvenience while travelling on
overloaded varsity buses, most of them in poor condition and needing constant
repair. While the KU administration offers no immediate solution to the problem,
the head of the university's transport committee has sought the help of
multinational firms and private organisations in this regard.
The problem
of KU's transport, say former students, is nothing new, though it has become
more severe in recent years with the opening of different programmes in the
institution. The students' numbers have swelled from 12,000 to 15,000 in the
1990s to over 20,000 during recent years.
But the number of KU buses,
referred to as 'points', has reduced from 35 to 26, according to sources. This
includes two vehicles recently gifted by the city nazim. However, the KU
officials put the number at 29. This reduction occurred in 1997 with the closure
of the Karachi Transport Corporation (KTC), which used to assist the university
in transporting students.
"We definitely need more buses, at least 100.
The KTC, on its closure, gave away some of its old buses to the university, but
it didn't solve the problem as most of them were outdated. Around 11 buses are
obsolete and are no longer in use. Five are under repair while the rest of the
26 buses develop faults quite frequently. The university faces an acute shortage
of funds and staff as one can see the transport unit only has two mechanics," a
driver who has been working with KU for over six years said, adding that the
death of a few students in the past years mainly occurred due to
overloading.
Waiting for an accident?
"Perhaps the
government is awaiting a 'major accident' because minor mishaps, which have
become the norm, have failed to move it into action," he sarcastically remarked.
He also disclosed that KU, despite having an acute shortage of buses, had been
completely ignored on the issue when the higher officials recently decided to
give some vehicles to different educational institutions, which includes the
Dawood University of Engineering and Technology, NED and Jamshoro
University.
Most of the students were highly critical of
the KU administration's persistent failure to resolve the transport problem.
When asked why they preferred university transport despite being so unsatisfied
with the quality of its service, they mentioned a number of reasons. Most of
them, especially girls, which comprised almost 65 per cent of KU students
nowadays, argued that they did not travel on the points out of choice but rather
out of compulsion, as most of them did not want to change three or four buses to
reach the university. Quite a few of them have also hired contract buses which
provide pick-and-drop services. But others said that the fare of these services
was way too high.
"Also, because of a sense of security we prefer to
travel on KU points, though the drive is extremely unsafe. If the administration
is ready to increase the number of buses to an adequate level, we are ready pay
a little more in fare," some of them said. The KU points currently charge
students Rs3 per ride.
Citing a recent accident, a student said that a
bus got out of control after its brakes failed and it rammed into a vacant KU
point parked on the other side of the road in Khokrapar, Malir. Luckily, no one
was injured because the vehicle was not moving at a high speed, though the
windowpanes were all broken. Some students alleged that the KU administration
gave the buses to students having political affiliations for different functions
and that, at times, had caused more problems for students.
Lamenting the
fact that though the University of Karachi claims to be the biggest educational
institution in the country, it has failed to provide an efficient transport
system to students, a teacher at the English department said: "It should be a
shame for any institution that its students endanger their lives every day and
are not being facilitated even inside the university to access different
departments". He maintained that an efficient transport system was needed not
only outside the university limits but also inside.
"Apart from regular
students, hundreds of people visit the university for different purposes. Along
with students, they, too, have to walk all the way to different departments as
the shuttle service closes by 10.30am or so. This problem aggravates in the
evening as not only is there no KU point, but also because public transport
starts disappearing by that time. Boys can sit on the rooftops of vehicles, but
girls have to wait for long periods. Also, the entire premises of the university
is not properly illuminated, which adds to their woes," he said, while
suggesting that the problem could be partially resolved by renting out bicycles
inside the university premises.
Corporate support
Another
solution, suggested by Dr Shadab Zulqarnain, head of the KU Transport Committee,
was to involve multinational firms and private organisations. "The university is
ready to display their banners on the buses if they help us tackle the problem,"
he said, emphasising that the administration was making a feasibility report to
improve the situation.
"I feel that the infrastructure needs to be set up
to sort out this problem for good. But this involves a lot of money, which we
don't have. We not only need more buses, but more staff and space too," he
said.
About the recent award of buses to some institutions, he said,
"perhaps we didn't pursue the matter with the Higher Education Commission hard
enough". Regarding the release of vehicles to some 'specific' students, he said
that this may have been a practice in the past, but now requests were honoured
only if they were backed by department chairmen. Dawn
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