AsiaNet-Pakistan Premier Editorial Content and Press Release Distribution Service
Lahore, March 26, 2015 (PPI-OT): Mr. Shah Faisal Afridi, President Pak-China joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry has stressed the need to replicate Transit Oriented Development model (TOD) successfully implemented in some of the populous countries like America, China and India. “China is ranked amongst the finest in the world as far as connectivity, management and reduction of jams is concerned, he added”.
He elaborated that Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an integrated community development model focused on facilitating people and places by connecting them to one another through a robust, “multi-Modal” transportation network. He declared Transit Oriented Development (TOD) model as the best way to resolve transport issues such as vehicle dependency, peak oil, global warming, fuel utilization pollution hazards and regional connectivity”.
In his call for the infrastructural reforms especially in the transport sector, Faisal Afridi said that such reforms are required to enhance industrial growth and allow millions of rural residents to be absorbed in the urban labor force.
Faisal Afridi mentioned that TOD projects, improve transit options by giving easy access to the residents towards trains, streetcars and buses for commuting to work elsewhere whereas the commercial components create jobs places that people can access more easily by public transportation.
He pointed out that, Deficient urban transport and congestion significantly reduce the connectivity between industrial clusters with domestic and international markets. In addition, increased motorization and poor urban planning have resulted in significant pollution and traffic congestion, he lamented.
Afridi regarded mobility as an indicator for development, given that transportation links together the various factors of production in a complex web of relationships between producers and consumers. He was of the view that the economies with better road and communication networks are positioned more advantageously in terms of overall competitiveness as compared to economies having poor networks.
He explicated that transportation industry was constituting 10 percent of Pakistan’s GDP and providing 6 percent of the employment in the country. It is currently in infrastructural demise, suffering from overcrowded vehicles on roads, low quality, long travelling times, and poor reliability; he said adding that such problems were badly hindering the country’s economic growth.
According to statistical reports, inefficiencies in transport and trade logistics of Pakistan are costing roughly 4-6 percent of GDP per year, therefore, problems associated with this industry need to be resolved immediately, in order to avoid future impairments, added Afridi.
Faisal Afridi suggested that TOD as a model of a “smart growth strategy” should be applied in Pakistan in order to overcome the issues of urban congestion, rural-urban spatial distances and over dependence on private vehicles by people in the cities.
He said that the government should look towards encouraging investment in the sector and figuring out innovative, sustainable solutions to problems in the area of urban transport through collaboration with the corporate sector.
For more information, contact:
Wardah Ali Gohar
Media Manager
Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI)
Mega Tower, 309 – 6th Floor,
Main Boulevard, Gulberg II,
Lahore, Punjab – Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-35777460-02, +92-42-37032203, +92-42-35874353
Fax: +92-42-35777524
Cell: +92-324-4925611
Email: info@pcjcci.org
Website: www.pcjcci.org