IEDC-2010 Conference Proceedings (Download ... - NED University

Urban Transportation Policy Framework for Karachi
Mir Shabbar Ali
(Professor, Department of Urban & Infrastructure Engg. NED University, Karachi, Pakistan)
Uneb Gazder
(Assistant Professor, Department of Urban & Infrastructure Engg. NED University, Karachi, Pakistan)
Abstract
Transportation framework defines the growth and development pattern of an urban area. The planning of
such system has to incorporate social, economical and environmental constraints and considerations. The
planning process is all guided by the policy statement prepared by the public administration with the aim
to provide efficient, safe and sustainable growth to the community. The officials rely upon modeling and
programming techniques for justification and evaluation of their policy decisions which is still considered
an under developed area. Moreover, it is emphasized to provide a large scale mass transit system in
collaboration with the private investors. Above, and many other factors are the challenges anticipated to
be responded by a well-instituted policy statement. This paper presents a detailed literature review of the
research work in this field and a critical evaluation of the efforts at the local level by CDGK (City District
Government Karachi) and other administering authorities. A survey is carried out and analyzed to find out
the stakeholders point-of-view in this regard, which is a significant component of this paper.All these
efforts are being combined to propose a framework for urban transportation policy that is applicable to a
city like Karachi and acceptable for all the stakeholders.
Keywords
Transportation network, policy framework, stakeholders
1. Introduction
Transportation establishes connection between population and spatially distributed activities and services.
Transportation networks play a vital role in economic growth of the country and the development of
social equity between different groups of the society. Moreover it provides the opportunity of balanced
growth of the city. Transportation networks are under increased pressures due to following factors:
Growing demands due to expansion and population
Increase in private ownerships
Globalization of economy, lifestyle choices and social affluence
Aging Infrastructure
These factors are resulting in creating externalities including traffic congestion, accidents, noise and air
pollution, land use development and depletion of natural resourceshttp://www.wisc.edu/. Furthermore
trends like migration and eviction to suburbs have resulted in problems of affordability, mobility and
access for the lower to middle income groups. These trends are prominent in metropolitan areas like
Karachi and Beijing. In order to meet the demands of ever growing population incorporating the above
factors is a challenging task for the administrators and requires participation from the private sector as
well. (CDGK, 2007, Gaurav et al, 1998).
In this regard, all issues need to be formally addressed through a well developed transport policy
document. The policy for urban transportation systems need to focus on providing safe and efficient
transportation networks minimizing all externalities and addressing the current and future trends of the
society. It should incorporate the idea of public private partnerships and develop trust among all the
Proceedings of IEDC 2010, 1-3 July, 2010
271
IEDC-251-027