Bus stops in the Kurdistan Region capital are frequently smashed, falling apart, and littered with trash, but no one wants to take on the responsibility of repairing them. Rudaw's photojournalist Bilind T. Abdulla traveled around the city to photograph shelters at bus stops with smashed windows, broken seats, piles of garbage, and tatters of old election campaign posters. Neither the ministry of transportation nor Erbil municipality is ready to fix them. "There are nearly 300 bus stops in Erbil city center. As the Erbil transportation and communication directorate, we do not carry the responsibility to take care of them," Abdulkhaliq Ali, in charge of Erbil transportation, told Rudaw. Ali says the bus stops were installed in 2014 by a private company on contract to the transportation ministry. "Once they were finished, we handed them over to the municipality," he said. "The municipality and security forces should carry the responsibility to prevent them being smashed or littered in." Rudaw English contacted the Erbil municipality's media officer, Syamand Karim, who said "this subject is related to the ministry of transportation." A local resident near one of the stops said the people are also at fault for the poor state of the shelters. "We don’t always have to blame the government or municipality. They set them up for us, and we destroyed them," said Sardar Mohammed. Erbil has a small public transit network, though most people rely on private cars or taxis to get around the city.
