An efficient and low-cost mass transit system is a means to improve the quality of life of the denizens of any urban

center. By utilizing public transport to and fro between their homes and places of work, city dwellers are able to maximize their disposable income on more tangible experiences such as going to cinemas, concerts, theme parks, eating out and of course shopping. However, in the absence of a moderately comfortable and reliable mass transit system, possessing an automobile becomes one of the main pursuits of life. The urban mass transit systems in Pakistan have always been in doldrums. Public transit on a national level has already been in deregulated state since the 1970s. The Punjab Road Transportation Corporation had however continued to operate an urban transit system of sorts until its complete collapse in the late 1990s. Some of us would recall those pale looking Volvo buses. Well the number of public buses decreased from 1,000 to eventually 50 on account of the Punjab government incurring heavy financial losses. Consequently 1998 saw the closure of this publicly operated urban transit system and witnessed the rise of transit franchising in the form of New Khan Metro and Daewoo bus services. These services were allowed to be operated on specific routes while guaranteeing a certain level of transportation quality. However, as these services are being run on a profit maximization basis, the number of buses in proportion to the commuters has drastically gone down. Even after the buses have been stuffed chock a bloc full of passengers at the various stops, many are still left to wait for the next bus to arrive which takes anywhere from 20 50 minutes. Since the early 1990s, so-called mega urban transit projects have been on the charts for the cities of Karachi and Lahore. The Karachi mass Transit Program (KMTP) and the Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS) have been proposed largely around a rail based system that would be underground, ground level as well as on elevated passage ways. However, all such rail-based mass transit systems require several billions of dollars for their construction and after completion have to be heavily subsidized in order for them to stay functioning whilst charging nominal fares. Just in the case of the LRMTS, by the time the first stage is expected to be completed in 2011 at a cost of $2.4 billion, for a passenger to avail it for a one-sided trip across town at a rate of about Rs.30, the government would have to pitch in Rs.100. this is besides the fact that public projects with such massive funding open all sorts of backdoors for kickbacks of millions of dollars. Already cases of siphoning of hundreds of millions of rupees have surfaced even before any groundwork has commenced, with the culprits being close aides of head honchos of the previous provincial government. With the extreme levels of economic turmoil that our country is currently being plagued by, we cannot by any means risk our future by borrowing such vast sums of funds from the likes of Asian development Bank (ADB). One viable and very costeffective option is to have dedicated lanes for bus based transit on the existing network of city roads and constructing overhead and underground only where

highly necessary. Of course this would entail a sever restriction on the flow of private cars and subsequent traffic jams if their numbers and use is not curtailed. Hence more than a logistical matter, the adoption of a dedicated bus-based transit system is a matter of political and personal will.