Connectivity: 200 buses to link 14 areas to metro bus

PMA and Daewoo Pakistan signed a six-year contract in this regard

LAHORE: The Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMA) on Wednesday inked an agreement with the Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service for the procurement, operation and maintenance of 200 feeder buses for integrated bus operations in the City.

Daewoo Pakistan general manager Khurram Mirza said the company would invest Rs3 billion for procurement of the buses. Later, more busses will be added to the fleet, he said. He said the company had been awarded the contract through a bidding process. He said under the contract, 162 big and 38 small buses would ply the feeder routes.

Mirza said the buses would be part of the Daewoo City Bus Service. He said the company would own and operate the buses on the feeder-routes of the metro bus and bill the PMA per kilometre. He said the authority would pay Rs165 and Rs140 per kilometer for big and small buses respectively.

Responding to a query, he said nearly 200,000 passengers were expected to use the service to commute from various parts of the city. He said it had been estimated that each bus would transport 1,000 passengers to metro bus stations daily.

Talking to The Express Tribune, PMA (Operations)General Manager  Syed Uzair Shah said the authority wanted to provide a comprehensive public transport facility for citizens. He said in the first phase the buses would be operated on 14 routes, covering 123 kilometres.

Documents available with The Express Tribune indicate that three companies (Platform AS, Daewoo Pakistan and Gursel and Compak JV) had submitted bids for the feeder bus service. The buses will be equipped with automated fare collection and bus scheduling system (AFC-BSS) and GPS tracking devices. Ticket sales and card recharge spots would be set up in 22 areas along the feeder routes.

These sale points will remain open during bus operation time. The operator would also provide 15 handheld electronic ticket validators for spot checking to facilitate PMA’s ticket inspectors.

The duration of the contract has been set at six years. The authority has plans to run as many as 1,400 standard or mini buses on 104 routes with a total route length of 951 kilometers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2016.