Just after three months of its operation, the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has halted the sole women transport service in Rawalpindi.
This created unrest among the women conductors of the service who staged a protest in front of the RTA offices near Fatima Jinnah Women University on Rashid Minhas Road in Pindi yesterday.
A public-private partnership, the transport service, comprising 12 wagons under the banner of ‘Tabeer’, was operating in collaboration with two firms, Al-Abrar Associates and cellular company Zong on two routes — Kohinoor Mills to Soan Bus terminal and from Saddar to Pakistan Secretariat.
A senior official of the local administration told the media that after the investors stopped financing the project, the RTA could not arrange alternative source of funding to keep the service running.
But the RTA on the other hand insisted that the service had been suspended for a month due to construction work on Murree Road.
RTA Secretary Awais Manzoor Tarar told reporters that after the start of work on Metro Bus Project the number of passengers for the women-specific vans had reduced considerably.
“In March, the seat occupation was 60 per cent but after the start of construction work it reduced to 20 per cent in April-May,” he said.
However the RTA has indicated that there are plans to re-start the service soon.
