LAHORE: Provincial Transport Authority (PTA) was taking effective steps to ensure implementation on Covid-19 related Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) in public transport including bus stations. Talking to reporter here on Sunday, Provincial Transport Authority (PTA) Secretary Naeem Bukhari said, “We are focused on strict enforcement of transport related anti-corona SOPs of the NCOC.” The department had also issued a specific transport regime being implemented in letter and spirit in public transport to contain corona pandemic. Bukhari also urged the passengers and transporters to cooperate with transport authorities and the local administration in their efforts to control corona spread. In case of non-compliance to NCOC SOPs, he added, the drivers and transport owners were being charged with fines, while passengers not adhering to precautionary measures were also being issued warnings accordingly. He mentioned that teams of transport department’s officials were also paying surprise visits to lorry adda/bus stands to check the SOPs there and compliance report was being forwarded to authorities concerned on daily basis. “The surveillance teams are regularly visiting the bus terminals and van stands to inspect the SOPs as the provincial transport department is all committed to implement the NCOC decisions and advisories issued time to time to contain coronavirus, ” Bukhari maintained.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by this scribe, corona SOPs were still being violated in the public transport as most of the passengers and transport crews were not wearing face-masks and there were no facility of hand-sanitizing and temperature-guns etc. in the inter-city and intra-city public transport vehicles. Moreover, transporters and commuters were found exhibiting irresponsible behaviour in observing anti-corona SOPs while using public transport. Anwar Ali, an employee of a private security company, who uses public transport to reach his office, told this scribe, “You see, no one is observing social distancing in the local transport and transporters are just focused on money-making by boarding passengers beyond the vehicles’ seating capacity. Similarly, sanitizer is not available in any local transport, ” he said, adding that there was a dire need to create awareness among transporters, bus crew as well as the general public about the fatal consequences of Covid-19. However, contrary to this, the major inter-city and inter-provincial transport companies such as Daewoo, Faisal Movers, Bilal Travels etc., had made adequate arrangements for implementation of anti-corona SOPs at their terminals and buses, the survey revealed.