Karachi’s Urban Planning: An Abysmal State
Karachi — the third-largest city in the world with a population of 16 million is on the brink of irreversible urban decay.
Rukhsana, a 30-year-old single mother from Machar Colony, an unplanned settlement in the outskirts of Karachi, commutes to city center every day to work at an upscale beauty salon. She takes five buses to get to her destination. She cannot work evening shifts as public transport gets crowded during rush hour leaving little or no space for women to travel safely. This is the plight of every woman in Karachi who uses public transportation for work, education and other social activities.
Pakistan is undergoing rapid urbanization at 3% — the fastest in South Asia (Kugelman, 2014). Karachi’s uncontrolled growth has put immense pressure on the city’s already limited resources, creating an overall urban infrastructure deficit. Among several sectors, transportation has suffered the most. Karachi’s public transit system falls short by 8,676 large buses to meet the international standard of “one 100-seater bus for a population of 1,500” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). Amid this chaos, it becomes even more burdening for vulnerable groups such as women to move around the city. This limited choice around mobility hinders their freedom to access opportunities pushing them further down the poverty scale. Researchers have found a positive association between freedom to move around and female labor force participation rate which currently stands at just 8.5 percent in Sindh’s cities (World Bank, 2018).
Karachi’s uncontrolled growth has put immense pressure on the city’s already limited resources, creating an overall urban infrastructure deficit. Among several sectors, transportation has suffered the most. Karachi’s public transit system falls short by 8,676 large buses to meet the international standard of “one 100-seater bus for a population of 1,500” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). Amid this chaos, it becomes even more burdening for vulnerable groups such as women to move around the city. This limited choice around mobility hinders their freedom to access opportunities pushing them further down the poverty scale. Researchers have found a positive association between freedom to move around and female labor force participation rate which currently stands at just 8.5 percent in Sindh’s cities (World Bank, 2018).
Findings
Acute Urban Transport Deficit
- Urban sprawl has made average travel longer. Lengths of commutes in Karachi vary between 20 to 40 kilometers (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). With a fragmented transportation system, the problem is only worsening. These lengthy commutes discourage mobility around the city to seek opportunities for “work, education or social activities” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015).
- Karachi is facing an acute issue of transport deficit. Karachi’s public transit system falls short by 8,676 large buses to meet the international standard of “one 100-seater bus for a population of 1,500” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). This demand-supply gap forces people to travel on roofs of buses to save time, but it is strictly illegal. However, women cannot avail such options due to social taboos regardless of its legal implications (Asian Development Bank, 2016). Given these limited options, women face a huge constraint while making mobility-related decisions.
- The state of public transport in Karachi is evident from the “fact that in 2011, only 0.85% of the vehicles were buses” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). This shortage coupled with the unstoppable expansion of cities encourages ownership of vehicles to move around further restricting the urban poor’s mobility patterns (Kugelman, 2014).
Social taboos and triple-burden economy trap
Women are generally discouraged from riding unreliable and unsafe public transport, especially for lengthier commutes which results in low levels of female labor force participation. Research states that female labor force participation is “positively associated with vehicle ownership in a household” (Ejaz, 2007). Moreover, areas with higher levels of mobility for women have shown higher levels of female labor force participation too (Figure 1) (Asian Development Bank, 2016).
Karachi is a resilient city that has not only sustained itself over the years but also served as the backbone for Pakistan’s economy. The haphazard urban expansion of Karachi has posed serious challenges to city operations affecting its economic efficiency. The proposed recommendations can help relevant stakeholders direct time and resources to urban development initiatives that will ultimately translate to long-term cost-effectiveness and sustainable growth.
Women are often trapped in a triple-burden economy where they are expected to divide time between domestic tasks, reproductive work and breadwinning activities (Ferrant et al., 2014). In order to manage this burden, women often take up low paid, unprofitable work in the informal economy (Bonnet et al., 2019). Given these limited economic opportunities concentrated in the informal sector, owning a vehicle becomes a distant dream (UN-Habitat, 2010).
Complex socio-political environment
Karachi plays a pivotal role in country politics and is home to the three biggest political parties in the country, including the ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) (Arab News, 2020). This convoluted socio-political environment requires multiparty efforts in governance decision making processes. Karachi has struggled to share enormous resources equally among different political parties. These political parties center their politics around ethnic roots rather than a common political vision (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). Given this complicated marriage of different political parties within a city, it becomes even more challenging to address Karachi’s urbanization issues.
Recommendations
Short Term: Improve city planning and placemaking processes (within 2 years)
Conduct user studies across vulnerable groups such as women, children to understand how cities can be made more inclusive and accessible. Different groups interact with the built environment differently (World Bank, 2020). Research suggests that women often opt for more complex trips which are not accounted for in “transit planning in terms of routes, timetables, and payment options” (World Bank, 2020). Such user studies would also account for social taboos and help the city government address issues such as harassment on public transit systems.
Forecast urban sprawl for the next 5–10 years using statistical models to draft data-driven urban planning and policy frameworks (Pramanik & Stathakis, 2015). Similar studies can be used to predict population growth (Figure 2) and allocate resources accordingly. The city government should learn best practices from other cities with similar urban challenges. Collecting data is a taxing process; therefore, the city government should make effective use of existing databases for this analysis.
Intermediate Term: Taxation and land reforms (within 3–5 years)
Develop a sustainable public financial management plan for Karachi through tax reforms and public-private partnerships for urban development. Stakeholders in the private sector mistrust government which can only be reduced if the public sector promises to ensure transparency and accountability. While public-private partnerships can reap results in the short-term, the government has to move towards lasting financial models such as transport or road tax to bridge the financial gap in urban development projects (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015).
Reclaim government land from illegal occupants for urban development and encourage an even spread of population across the city. The reclaimed land should be used to develop low-income housing to reduce population stress in anyone specific area of the city. Since these areas have long been occupied by groups, it is important to undertake legislative reforms to discourage such practices.
Long Term: robust public transit system (within 5–7 years)
Expedite the development of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project under Karachi Transportation Improvement Plan (KTIP) in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (Figure 3). This project has been delayed multiple times, owing to “lack of political will and institutional ownership” (The Urban Resource Centre et al., 2015). The development of BRT should be taken over by the federal government as the current political structure of Karachi does not favor its construction. Immediate action would require the federal government to release a subsidy package under the Annual Development Plan (ADP) to finance current budget deficit in the project.
Another issue with the KTIP is that it does not provide coverage for a significant part of the city. The system is likely to collapse unless it is connected to other parts of the city with small scale mobility projects providing first-and-last mile transit solutions. The recent success of BRT system in city of Peshawar, Pakistan provides an exemplary model for Karachi to learn from (Peshawar Traffic Police).
Karachi is a resilient city that has not only sustained itself over the years but also served as the backbone for Pakistan’s economy. The haphazard urban expansion of Karachi has posed serious challenges to city operations affecting its economic efficiency. The proposed recommendations can help relevant stakeholders direct time and resources to urban development initiatives that will ultimately translate to long-term cost effectiveness and sustainable growth.
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Ejaz, M. 2007. Determinants of Female Labor Force Participation in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis of PSLM (2004–05) Micro Data. Lahore Journal of Economics. Special Edition (September 2007). pp. 203–235.
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