Spoiler alert: Sightseeing Lahore hits a roadblock

Petitioner says service should induct indigenous buses

LAHORE: The plan to expand Sightseeing Lahore—the city’s conspicuous double-decker tourist bus service—has hit a snag courtesy public interest litigation, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Tourism Development Corporation of Pakistan (TDCP) had earlier announced that it intended to expand the service’s fleet by June. TDCP Managing Director Ahmar Malik said great public interest in the service had compelled the corporation to initiate work on importing three buses in March. But, he said, Lahore High Court (LHC) had been moved in this regard. Malik said the petitioner, a representative of a civil society organisation, had told the court that the corporation should procure indigenous buses and save precious foreign exchange. The TDCP MD said the move had halted progress on the service’s expansion.

He said the LHC had disposed of the case and instructed the corporation to hear what the petitioner had to say. Malik said this would happen soon. He said a decision on procuring buses would follow.

Malik said Sightseeing Lahore services had received an overwhelming response from the people. He said over 50,000 tourists had used the service since its inauguration on November 25, 2015. With only two buses, the TDCP MD said, the corporation had organised over a thousand trips for corporate clients, schools and groups of people. He said schoolchildren from as far as Karachi, Islamabad and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) had had the pleasure of experiencing the service.

Malik said Sightseeing Lahore had become a new attraction in the city.  He said the TDCP had received many inquiries from various parts of the country about the service.  He said the corporation had served a large number of tourists from Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. Malik said tourists from Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and interior Sindh also frequently used the service.

He said an influx of international tourists had been witnessed as the security situation nationwide had taken a turn for the better. “A respectable number of international tourists have also used the service. Most were from India, Malaysia, the UK. the USA, Canada, Germany and China,” Malik said.

He said the service had proven to be quite a draw for Pakistani expats. Malik said it was the first thing they wanted to experience in the company of friends and families on their return home. Malik said the service tended to remain completely booked on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The TDCP MD said the corporation would introduce new routes and increase frequency. He emphasised the standard of the service which he said was comparable to similar services being offered across cities including London, Dubai and Budapest.

The provincial government had already approved the service’s expansion and the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) had earmarked Rs120 million for the acquisition of three buses for the service.

Earlier, the corporation had imported two tailor-made double-decker Volvo buses from China for $376,000. Each bus can accommodate 67 passengers. The vehicles are equipped with a public address system used to make those onboard cognisant of sites of interest along the service’s routes.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2016.