RAWALPINDI: At the start of new week in holy month of Ramadan , huge crowds of people were witnessed on Monday at all the metro bus stations to travel on Pakistan Metro bus from Rawalpindi to Islamabad as all metro buses were fully packed of passengers.
People saving themselves from scorching heat are giving preference to reach their offices and work places in time by travelling on luxury metro bus while all others busy roads of twin cities are giving deserted look.
A passenger Muhammad Imran said that he travels from Rawalpindi to Islamabad on a daily basis and today he is witnessing extra rush at all bus stations and inside the metro buses. He said that in hot weather people are giving priority to reach their destinations through metro bus.
Another passenger Bilal said that the Metro is a gift for the people from the government. He pointed out that earlier he had to wait for the transport in scorching heat but Metro has changed the culture and one can travel between the twin cities in less than 45 minutes in air-conditioned buses.
Zahid Khan said that the service has made life easy for the passengers but the time of Metro bus must be extended till midnight. Ayesha, a student of Bahria Universityin Islamabad said that the traveling on the metro bus is a real joy, adding that women faced many difficulties in the public transport plying on various routes in the twin cities and the behavior of passengers and the drivers was very rude with women. Now women can travel with comfort.
Although the service has lessened the woes of the people to a great extent but there are still a few problems in the metro bus service,that deserve urgent attention of the authorities. These include mal functioning of ticketing machines at various stations. Work is still on going on some stations and elevators have not been made operational. The staff of the service is still under training and is a little too cautious; passengers have complained that at times they were stopped from even drinking water on the stations as the staff claimed that it is not allowed.
The service started with 68 busses on 23 km long track from Saddar to Secretariat, including 24 stations. The people have demanded Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif to order plying of more metro buses for reducing rush of the passengers as with passage of every day the number of the passenger is increasing for metro bus services.
INP