Zubair Qureshi
A group of students and faculty members from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has launched a move to create awareness about traffic problems in urban areas of Islamabad.
Prof Dr Muhammad Zaman, the founding chairman of the Department of Sociology, is leading the awareness drive.
In an interaction with the media, he told reporters that a smart public transport system, smart journey planner, smart parking and smart licensing are the need of the hour.
He said his team wanted to facilitate the marginalized, deprived and neglected sectors of the society by providing them with an updated and high-quality public transport system at a highly affordable cost.
He said the awareness drive is part of a HEC-funded project titled Optimal Use of Available Resources.
The team has visited different schools and colleges in the first phase conducting sessions to highlight the importance of road safety.
In phase two the team will visit different universities of Islamabad and will conduct interactive sessions with the students to motivate them to abide by the traffic rules, to use helmets, to fasten the seat belt while driving, not using mobile phone during driving. A team member, Asif Hayat, conducted a study to find Islamabad has increased in size from 220.15 square km in 1960 to 905.50 square km in 2023.
The study also finds a perpendicular rise in the city’s population, pressing on the need for robust policing and out-of-the-box solutions for traffic problems.
