Adeem Niaz

A sustainable public transport system is essential for reducing the number of private cars on roads and addressing the problem of rising levels of smog and air pollution in big cities. This assessment was shared by experts at a panel discussion titled, “Sustainable Urban Transportation for Smart Cities in the Developing Countries” organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Institute of Urbanism (IoU) and Heinrich Boll Stiftung. Experts during the discussion stressed the need for stakeholder collaboration and engagement of civil society and government to come up with radical solutions to the problems of public transport and smog in big cities.

Senior Programme Fellow, Institute of Urbanism, Dr Ejaz Ahmed, acted as moderator during the penal discussion. Programme Coordinator, IoU, Ayesha Majid during her time, presented a study from Islamabad where the IoU had mapped urban mobility and transport landscape of the capital. According to her findings transport sector accounts for 22.3% of the services sector of the GDP, 6% of total employment and 30% of the total energy use of the country. She added that because of the inefficient transport system, motor users in the capital have increased drastically, resulting in parking issues, loss of green cover because of the development of road infrastructure and the misuse of green belts of the capital.

Assistant Manager Mechanical at Punjab Mass Transit Authority, Muhammad Umar said that being the pioneer in rapid transport systems, Punjab Mass Transit Authority is currently operating four Bus Rapid Transit systems in the cities of Islamabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. He said action is needed to implement distance-based fares, park and ride facilities, bicycle sharing, renewable energy sources like electric and hybrid buses, non-fare revenue generation, transit orient development, and business and leisure areas within walking distance of public transport.

He said if these measures are undertaken a lot of improvements can be seen in the system of public transport and the state of air pollution in big cities. Director Labs, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Dr Mohsina Zubair said that reduction of smog in big cities will not be possible without reforming the public transport system. She added that Islamabad Capital Territory Administration has constituted antismog squads to check for factories and industrial plants which did not have effective anti-pollution mechanisms in place.

Senior Research Associate at SDPI, Maryam Shabbir Abbasi, said that no effort on part of the government has been successful as of yet to remedy the smog situation in Lahore which was causing a lot of health problems for the residents of the provincial capital. The reasons she said for the failure of government to address the smog situation have been competition for data authenticity between government and the private sector, the 18th amendment, lack of coordination between federal and provincial governments, and lack of effective manpower at the Environmental Protection Department.

Director, Heinrich Boll Stiftung (hbs), Asia Global Office, Dr Axel Harneit-Sievers, who chaired the panel discussion, said that Pakistan needs to switch to electric vehicles for a long-term solution to its air pollution problem. He added, “those sectors of the economy need to be identified which are causing the worst of air pollution and work should be done on them for their conversion to sustainable sources of energy.”

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk