PESHAWAR: Inept, unprofessional and untrained employees are spoiling the heavy cost operated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project as commuters particularly government employees have started looking for alternative vehicular transport.
The staffers particularly those deployed at bus stations of the service are not properly trained to treat the commuters in a professional manner. The security personnel of the Zu Security, a subsidiary of the Urban Mobility Authority are very poorly trained regarding the use of the security equipment including walk-through gates and frisk machines.
The security staff deployed at the entrances of the stations are most found involved in exchange of harsh words and arguments with commuters. The commuters are objecting their manual body search in presence of security equipment worth of millions of rupees that are install at the gates.
Talking to this scribe, Aslam an employee of a public sector organization expressed his displeasure over the treatment accorded to the commuters at BRT stations by the Zu Security personnel.
He said that the security staff often check them manually despite adherence to the standard security standard operating procedures (SOPs) followed by the security personnel at all sensitive installations and facilities like airports, railway stations and hotels not only in
Pakistan rather across the world.
Pakistan rather across the world.
When asked about filing a formal complaint against the security personnel with the management of the BRT, he said that he had even talked to the incharge of the Zu Security, he instead of taking action or slamming the arrogant personnel supported them and told him to file a complaint against them on the CM’s Complaints’ Portal.
He said that now being disgruntled of the constant mistreatment at the hands Zu security staff he has repaired his abandoned motor cycles to use it for commuting to his office. Same is the case with hundreds of regular commuters of the service and they are mulling over abandoning the use of BRT service.
When this scribe asked a Zu Security personnel about their professional training and particularly friendly treatment of the commuters, he on condition of anonymity said that they are being told that no one should pass through without their manual body search, either the passerby is even their father.
This attitude of the BRT top management and security personnel is even the violation of their own adapted and advertised security code of conduct. The service is regularly demonstrating it through playing a video, asking the commuters to take out metal-oriented articles from their pockets and then pass through the walk-through-in gates. But the security personnel are bent upon the humiliation of the commuters while the management has turned deaf ears to the public complaints in this regard.
Following the operation of the BRT service, the commuters have no alternative vehicular transport as the provincial government has established the monopoly of the public sector transport service and has banned the issuance of route permits to any vehicle on the routes on which BRT is operated.
The provincial government has fixed highest fare for the BRT service than other provinces, particularly against the metro bus services of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Lahore wherein the fare per one commuter or ridder is Rs.30 while in BRT Peshawar is charging Rs.60.
There are also other complaints of the unprofessional approach of the management and operation on the pattern of the omni buses is resulting in overloading and crowding the buses as time duration of departure of buses is long and due to the monopoly of the BRT service on the public transportation.
The service is defending the overloading saying intra-city bus services are used to overloading all over world. Such kind of ads is regularly played on the monitors installed on the buses.
Since, initiation of work, BRT Peshawar, which the leadership of the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) claims as their flagship project is tainted with alleged corruption and malpractices. The total cost of the project has become a secret for the people as the provincial administration is not ready to reveal its exact cost while the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has claimed the recovery of Rs168.5 billion in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Peshawar project.
The bureau also helped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government avoid a Rs31.5 billion claim lodged by contractors in the International Court of Arbitration (ICA).
NAB launched an inquiry in 2018 into the illegal awarding of contracts, misuse of government funds, and submission of fraudulent performance guarantees by contractors involved in the BRT project. After a period of stagnation, the investigation gained momentum, resulting in significant financial recovery.
The expenses of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Peshawar are also significantly higher than its revenue, leading to a financial crisis, according to documents from the Transport Department.
The documents revealed that the daily expenditure of the BRT system stands at Rs14.5 million while the daily revenue is over Rs5.4 million, resulting in a daily loss of Rs9 million. Annually, the BRT’s expenditure has risen to Rs5.32 billion while the annual deficit has reached Rs3.38 billion.
The Transport Department argued that subsidies are provided for metro systems worldwide and the purpose of the BRT is to provide excellent transportation facilities to the public without burdening them.
The BRT project, which was touted as a solution to Peshawar’s traffic woes, is now struggling to sustain itself financially, posing a challenge for the authorities to find a way to make the system viable and beneficial for the commuters.
A detail questionnaire regarding these complaints were sent to a spokesperson of the BRT service to find answers to three questions regarding the number of security personnel, their training particularly regarding the use of security equipment and professional dealing with those entering the BRT stations.
The second question was regarding the number of complaints lodged against the Zu Security personnel and their redressal and the third and final question was regarding the total cost of the BRT project, per annum, and monthly operation cost and earnings of the service. But, despite the lapse of 10 days, they failed to reply those questions.
