Sharjeel chairs meeting to uplift Karachi's public transport

He urges the federal government to provide 300 buses promised under the PSDP project

KARACHI:

Sindh Senior Minister for Excise, Taxation, Narcotics Control, Transport, and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon chaired on Thursday a high-level meeting of the Transport Department and discussed projects aimed at improving inter-city commute.

Secretary Transport Asad Zaman, MDSMTA Kamal Dayo, Acting CEO of Trans Karachi Saima Mohsin, officials of Red Line, Orange Line, and Yellow Line, an international Consultant and other participants were present at the meeting.

The meeting focused on multiple projects including the Orange Line and Green Line that will be soon connected by a shuttle service to Tower right after Eidul Fitr.

The minister demanded the federal government 300 buses worth 18 billion as promised under the Public Sector Development Programmes (PSDP) project while he alleged that work on the Red Line BRT service was delayed due to the negligence of the caretaker government.

Read New batch of buses under PBS arrives: Sharjeel

Sharjeel stated that the work on Red Line BRT was resuming soon with the efforts of all stakeholders and asserted completing the project at the earliest.

He further shared about the Sindh government’s plan to start inter-city bus service with an initial 500 buses purchased for the convenience of the people under the inter-district transport project.

Highlighting the Yellow Line bus service project, Sharjeel hoped to benefit commuters soon.

He added that the provincial government was also planning to operate buses from Karachi to Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas to Hyderabad, Larkana to Sukkur, and Larkana to Qamber Shahdadkot.

Earlier in a meeting with the top officers of related departments, Sharjeel instructed measures and reforms in the public transport and the E&T departments.

Memon instructed E&T authorities to make the tax recovery system efficient and orderly. He has called an important meeting of E&T to take important decisions.

The minister said that no effort should be left in providing the best travel facilities to the people. He gave instructions that the best travel facilities should be ensured to the public in the holy month of Ramazan.