Karachi awaits 60 buses as minister (re)announces ‘Peoples Bus Service’

A 100 days pass, 1,000-bus project remains to be initiated

KARACHI: On May 11, 2019, provincial Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah announced the launch of a new bus service. The inta-city bus service project was to have 1,000 buses for Karachi but a 100 days later, the project has yet to be initiated. Meanwhile, the transport minister has announced yet another bus project for all districts of Sindh.

In a statement issued on Friday, the minister claimed that the Sindh government has sought suggestions from the transport department regarding the launch of intra-city buses and van and coaster services in all districts of Sindh. "It has been decided that initially, 60 buses will be introduced in the metropolis in 60 days, during the first phase of the project. After two months, another 200 will be added to the fleet in the second phase of the project," the minister had announced in May. According to the agreement signed in May, between the Sindh government and Daewoo, a Korean transport company, Karachi was to have 60 buses by July 11, and another 200 by September.

On Friday, Shah said that the Sindh government will provide route permits, bus depots and other facilities to transporters free of charge, and transporters with over 40 years of experience of driving coasters and buses can contact the provincial government. "The government of Sindh wants to gift the Peoples Bus Service to all districts of Sindh," he said.

Empty promises

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has to its credit a long list of promises for bus services in Karachi during different tenures of its governments in Sindh. In 11 years of its rule in Sindh, its government has launched the pilot projects of ten buses in Karachi and 20 buses in Larkana, and one of these projects was shut down in around a year of being functional. The rhetoric, however, may have you believing otherwise.

In February this year, the transport minister had announced the launch of a bus service, during a question-answer session of the Sindh Assembly. During the session, he sought quotations from interested investors for a bus service consisting of 200 buses covering 10 routes in Karachi.

Previously, in 2017, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had also approved a plan to introduce 600 inter-city buses in Karachi, as a part of the Sindh Government's five-year loan programme through the Sindh Modaraba Management Limited. The Sindh government had announced it will facilitate transporters in generating funds for new buses.

In the following year, another ten buses were introduced in the city, under the Peoples Bus Service project, launched by the then transport minister Nasir Hussain Shah. Buses run under this project were also owned and operated by Daewoo. This project was shut down just after a year in April 2019.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2019.