Sialkot
Permanently accumulated water, heaps of garbage and unavailability of waiting room for passengers who have to stand under the open sky in the scorching heat are the key features of the General Bus Stand of Sialkot.
A backyard spreads on acres of land and is three-feet deeper than the rest of the stand therefore it usually looks like a pond because most of sewerage of the bus stand and adjacent vicinity of Mochipura is drained into it.
Last year, the cantonment board had uplifted the stand area with tough tile leaving the pond in grimmer situation. Now, it is covered from all the sides and no sewerage system is available to this deserted place. “With the advent of monsoon, at least four feet-water accumulates here every year, which then lasts for the whole of winter till April. Thus, it is the biggest breeding ground of mosquito larva in the city,” said driver Qaiser.
More than 10,000 passengers use this bus stand daily and presence of the mosquito breeding ground may break out dengue or malaria in the town. Since the shifting of the stand here some 25 years ago, the pond has been the permanent nuisance for the local people. Ghulam Hasnain, a driver, said, “I was 25 when the bus stand shifted here and now I am 50 years old and I myself have suffered from malaria at least 10 times due to this place.”
Khalid said, “We have never seen anybody from the health or environment departments here to analyse the gravity of this problem nor did any other department ever looked into the pathetic situation of the bus stand.” Furthermore, a passengers’ rest room has been occupied by the Police Chowki Lari Adda while the people have to stand under the sky in the scorching heat. “We need sitting rooms, sheds and proper sewerage system here,” a passenger demanded. “We were to buy water but now Cantonment Board has installed a water plant on the stand which is a great facility,” said Awais, another passenger.
Cantonment Board CEO Syed Ali Irfan Rizvi said that “for first time in the history of the city, Rs10 million has been spent on upgradation of the General Bus Stand and we have reserved another Rs10 million for construction work this year. In this regard, we have started operation clean-up against encroachers which was the biggest hurdle in cleaning this bus stand.”
“We have focused bays and tough tiling for rest of the stands and will gradually change this stand into the most beautiful bus stand of the country,” he said. TMO Zafar Qureshi on the other hand said the pond area either belongs to Auqaf or Cantonment Board.