Fleet of CNG buses left to rust

Service ran from Gujjar Khan to Gordon College on Liaquat Road

RAWALPINDI:

The CNG bus project launched by the previous government has not been fruitful. Some 14 compressed natural gas buses in the Chahari transport yard on Grand Trunk (GT) Road have been left at the mercy of the weather for years, sources shared on Sunday.

The government of Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) had purchased CNG buses through bank financing on the lowest mark-up. The public transport ran from Gujjar Khan to Gordon College on Liaquat Road. However, the vehicles began showing problems running on undulated steep routes and started to have glitches from the very beginning.

Faisal Aziz Bhatti, who was part of the project, told The Express Tribune that the buses were purchased after taking loans on low mark-ups. However, he admitted that the technology of the vehicles was not in accordance with the weather and route owing to which the project failed.

Bhatti said that skidding, frequent fire incidents, and steepness on route created trouble for the buses. He added that nothing could be said about the future utilisation of the vehicles.

The pistons of the various buses could not sustain heat and incidents of their melting were reported as a bus had even caught fire as well while provision of expensive spare parts also became difficult, sources claimed.

Later on, they were stationed at Chahari in a parking yard as a result of theft of its parts became a practice. However, after such incidents, a watchman was deployed to protect the buses, which is now serving as a shelter for street animals.

They have been left at the mercy of the weather and the paint on the buses has faded while the transport yard has turned into a graveyard of buses.

In 2012, the then Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif had directed the district administration to launch 100 CNG buses in Rawalpindi to provide safe and affordable public transportation. The provincial government had acquired bank financing on high interest rate to acquire these buses.

The CNG bus service was appreciated by the public but the only decent transport service was halted later in 2012 due to reasons best known to authorities.

Commuters had mentioned that initially they thought the bus service was stopped due to a three-day closure of CNG under load management schedule but the service remain suspended even after resumption of CNG services.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2021.