Conflicting road bodies, e-challan frenzy throw Karachi traffic in turmoil

• Traffic police, KDA’s TEB, Cantt boards, SMTA are involved in regulating traffic, installation of signals, signs across city
• Nearly half of city’s 130 traffic signals are out of order, say sources
• Mass transit body recently installed 11 signals
• Govt mulls single body for traffic engineering

KARACHI: While the Sindh government appears to be overzealous about strict implementation of e-challans, the responsibility of traffic engineering remains scattered among multiple entities, hindering the development of a seamless and efficient transportation network in Karachi.

Sources told Dawn that the absence of a unified traffic engineering authority was a significant obstacle to designing and implementing solutions — from road design to traffic signal timing — leaving the city’s traffic stuck in multiple gridlocks.

They said that the challenging task of traffic engineering and management was at present shared among multiple entities, including the Traffic Engineering Bureau (TEB) of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) and cantonment boards, leading to lack of clear accountability and coordination.

Primarily the complex task of traffic engineering, including installation of traffic signals and signs, is the responsibility of the TEB, which has been barely able to maintain the already installed signals due to “constant financial constraints”, they said.

The KDA said that its TEB maintained 90 out of total 130 traffic signals across the city, while 40 by different cantonment boards.

However, the sources said that TEB maintained only 50 out of 90 signals under its domain and remaining were out of order and required extensive repair works.

KDA Director General Asif Jan Siddiqui said that the authority was barely maintaining the traffic signals due to financial constraints.

Plan to set up traffic management company

The sources said that the provincial government was considering setting up a new company, to be called the Karachi Traffic Management Company (KTMC), for managing traffic engineering responsibilities of the entire city.

The sources said that the company would be responsible for installation of new signals, repair of signals, road and lane markings, U turns and zebra crossings.

Confiding this to Dawn, the sources said that different proposals for setting up a regular body for improving traffic flow and reducing congestion were discussed at high-level meetings.

They said that the proposed company would be headed by the Karachi mayor as its chairman, with commissioner and experts from the private sector as its members.

They said that that the TEB would be merged into the proposed company.

Recently, DIG Traffic Pir Muhammad Shah had also informed industrialists belonging to the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry about the proposal, saying it had already been submitted to the government and the proposed company would receive a share of challan revenue to fund improvements in road infrastructure.

When contacted, the Karachi commissioner said that the proposal was still at a “conceptual stage”.

The sources said that there was another proposal under discussion to bring TEB altogether under the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

SMTA installing signals

While the installation of traffic signals is still the responsibility of the TEB, the SMTA has apparently taken over the task as it said that it had installed 11 new traffic signals in different parts of the city, including Model Colony, Gulberg, Tipu Sultan Road, Gurumandir, Kamran Chowrangi and Munawar Chowrangi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Steel Township Crossing.

SMTA Managing Director Kanwal Nizam Bhutto told Dawn that besides installation of 18 new traffic signals, the authority had also upgraded 24 out of 27 signals in the city under an Annual Development Plan scheme.

Moreover, the SMTA has also installed as many as 243 traffic sign boards on different locations on Shahrah-i-Quaideen, Shaheed-i-Millat Road, Rashid Minhas Road, Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Shahrah-i-Pakistan and Saddar.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2025