Transportation promises: ‘50 CNG buses to run in Karachi within six months’

Six firms have prequalify for the proposed Benazir Bhutto CNG Bus Project.


Ppi January 03, 2011

KARACHI: Travelling in Karachi might be just a little less likely to induce a migraine as the government promises progress on the CNG bus and the Karachi circular railway project.

Six firms have prequalified for the proposed Benazir Bhutto CNG Bus Project. One of these is a Chinese company that has agreed to bring 50 CNG buses to Karachi within six months.

Mass Transit Cell Director, Karachi, Malik Zaheerul Islam addressed a meeting on Monday at the committee room of the civic centre. He said 14 companies, including nine Chinese firms, three Pakistan companies and one firm each from Korea and Germany, had applied for running the bus service in Karachi. Out of these, six companies have ‘prequalified’.

Under the project, 4,000 CNG buses would be brought to Karachi within five years.

Islam said an amount of Rs300 million has already been received from the federal government for the project. By December, 2012, 1,300 buses would start running while 1,200 more buses will be brought in by December, 2013. The remaining vehicles will join the troupe by December, 2014.

He said the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) would be the controlling authority of the project. However, all stakeholders of Karachi have been taken on board. A special cell would also be set up to run this project.

Participants at the meeting were told that 500 to 1,000 CNG buses would be introduced in Karachi on an urgent basis. Each contractor would bring at least 25 buses. The government would pay a subsidy of Rs677,181 per bus to the contractor. Out of this amount, Rs300,000 would be paid immediately while the remaining sum would be paid in five years.

Moreover, to help out the contractors, the government would also cancel the 15 per cent custom duty on these buses.

Karachi DCO Muhammad Hussain Syed said it would be a godsend for the commuters in Karachi if the project follows schedule.

He said all past failures involving wide-bodied CNG buses in Karachi should be kept in mind. Once the buses are in the city, they should be used rather than parked away on the pretext of technical faults, he advised. “We have no time for new experiments because millions of people suffer [because of poor transport facilities] every day,” he added.

The DCO asked the director of the mass transit cell to give priority to this project before all other projects.

Revival of the circular railway

“The government is serious about restarting the Karachi circular railway project,” said Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Information Sharmila Farooqui on Monday. The project would be revived at a cost of $1.558 billion, 93 per cent of which a Japanese company will finance in easy installments.

She said that the route length of the project is more than 43 kilometres and the circular train would pass through 24 stations.

The project would be completed by 2014 and around 600,000 passengers are estimated to use it daily.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4th, 2011.

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