Free shuttle service for girls colleges

KARACHI: Going to college has been made just a bit easier by the Sindh government’s new transport plan.

The government has prepared a plan for a transport system that will provide conveyance to students of 100 government girls colleges. Under the scheme, students in areas of the province and the outskirts of Karachi will be able to use a shuttle service for free. The project will be started once the new budget year begins this July. The finance department has agreed to the proposal and its financial requirements. It will be presented in the Sindh Assembly’s budget session next month, as was decided in a meeting of the education department and the finance department a day ago.

The finance department reassured educational officers that they would get their required Rs100 million for the project. Provincial education secretary Sadiq Memon told Daily Express that the department will issue a tender, which will be signed with a transport company after an auction. The company will then be given the contract to take buses to and from the colleges.

Students have been facing a lot of trouble getting to their schools and colleges, especially from far flung areas and many of them have to change several buses to get to their destination, Memon said.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 26th, 2010.