An Assessment of Franchise Based Urban Transport Scheme in Punjab

A noticeable implication of unprecedented expansion in size and population of major cities of Pakistan has been the demand for transport facilities and services. The generally low car ownership rate and limited access to personal motorised transport has created space for public transport to become the most efficient way of providing good access for longer distance trips within the cities. The urban public transport in cities of Punjab, the largest province of Pakistan in terms of population, has also been suffering from numerous inadequacies. In order to bring improvements in public transport services, the government of Punjab launched a franchise based transport scheme in 1999 in five major cities of the province. This paper reviews the performance of this new transport system. The analysis of data presented in this paper leads to the conclusion that the franchise scheme has been successful in laying down the foundation of bus industry and its potential can be optimised by removing the constraints in the way of its development. Nevertheless, the future of the franchise scheme will be highly dependent on the managerial competence of the regulatory authorities.