Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry unveiled environment-friendly motorcycles and rickshaws, which will run on rechargeable batteries. The country, which has long been facing challenges on environment and fuel consumption fronts, will be able to conserve energy and make the environment safe if his plans are realised. Even though mass transit is the mother of all transport-related solutions, life in a Pakistani city or town is hard to lead without a motorcycle and a rickshaw.
From errands to hard tasks like pick and drop of schoolchildren and so on, the usage of motorcycles and rickshaws is frequent and unavoidable. If Chaudhry wants to make a visible difference to environmental issues, he should ride a bicycle and make bicycle riding a popular trend. That will, however, require spreading awareness of traffic rules and making our roads bicycle-friendly. Automobile experts call battery-operated vehicles the ultimate future of transport and an apt way to minimise dependency on POL products.
Pakistan, being one of the largest users of motorcycles and rickshaws in the world, will benefit a lot from electronic technology-driven transport, which will also help combat carbon emissions in the environment. In the last decade, Pakistan did wonderful experiments with modern transport modes, mostly in mass transit, in large cities like Lahore, Islamabad, Multan and now in Karachi. Under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, many road networks have been completed. That is going to raise the standard of living as well as the economy.
JAMSHED SIDDIQUI
Lahore
