Srinagar, 10 Nov: Commuters specially women from various parts of Srinagar City on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with the limited availability of public transportation during the evening hours, claiming that they face immense inconvenience in reaching their homes.
Commuters, particularly women and elderly people expressed disappointment over the lack of evening public transport on many city routes such as HMT, Narbal, Soura, Chanapora, Bemina, and many other areas of Srinagar.
Reaching out to the RTO officials, ARTO Srinagar Arif Parvez, told Rising Kashmir that they will take up the matter with the service providers, and stakeholders and will issue directions to ensure the adequate availability of transport during evening hours.
“The matter will be taken on priority and directions will be issued and in a change will be there within this week only as we will issue directions to concerned transporters in Srinagar to keep availability of transport during evening hours”, he said.
Many female commuters told Rising Kashmir that they are facing a lot of inconveniences to reach their homes stating that the public transport during evening hours goes very thin.
“Even if a minibus comes during evening hours such is the crowd that a female prefers to pull stay out of the vehicle as people jump over to get s seat. There should be an adequate number of public transport vehicles available during evening hours”, a female commuter said.
Masrat, a student from Soura said that after her college she goes for coaching in the Rajbagh area but finds it difficult to get a bus to reach her home, stating that she either has to book an Auto rickshaw which cost her around Rs 250-300.
“Public transporters are plying their vehicles at their will, as soon as the sun sets they park their vehicles and leave commuters in distress. Government should plan something about it as on daily basis people cannot afford Auto rickshaws or cabs”, she said.
A group of commuters near Jahangir Chowk also voiced concern about the minimal availability of transport during evening hours, stating that they have to wait for long hours in evening for catching a bus.
Shabir Ahmad, working as an office boy at a private company in Karanagar said that reaching his home in the Umerabad area in Srinagar outskirts is always a challenge during evening hours.
“Getting a bus to my area has been never easy, though there is a government bus service on the route as well, but within their arrival at the stop that gets overcrowded. Boarding a bus for a female or elderly person is too inconvenient”, he stated.
