LAHORE Despite all facilities and high salaries to employees, the Lahore Transport Company has totally failed to deliver since its establishment in the City, The Nation has learnt reliably. Interestingly, the statements issued on almost daily basis and the website of the LTC claim success stories but on the other side there is nothing but pain and cry, as the commuters have poor facilities on the city roads. There are less than 500 buses on city roads for hundreds of thousands of commuters. The buses at rout numbers 22, 77, 33 have almost disappeared. Mini wagons are plying on certain roads with deplorable conditions. The maintenance of buses especially of New Khan, Daewoo, Niazi Express companies and others has become the lowest priority of the owners. The Lahore Transport Company responsible for planning, operations and enforcement has been silent over the situation, an expert in transport sector seeking anonymity said. 'Who will take the pain to resolve the problems which we were facing on roads daily, lamented a student while waiting for a bus at Muslim Town stop. He said the people had to wait for hours for the public transport which was irksome for them. For the last two years, the LTC has been claiming a lot but the apparent situation is totally different. The company had signed 'First Operator Framework Agreement for operating 42 buses on B-9 route. It had claimed to launch live bus monitoring system and enforcement operation. The establishment of control room for Bus Management System had been also stated. The company had signed an agreement with Paksat-Suparco for establishment of Bus Management System for monitor performance of LTC Buses besides announcing high quality bus terminals. Adding to the above-said slogans, the LTC shifted its office in posh areas of Liberty Roundabout. The company authorities at many occasion created lucrative posts and inducted transport enforcement inspectors at high salaries but never paid attention towards any road. Recently, the Punjab chief minister has given the task for bringing improvement in city transport to his close ally Khawaja Ahmad Hassan as Chairman LTC. The chairman on Thursday left for seven days visit to Turkey. The statement issued in this regard said the chairman LTC would hold meeting in order to explore various avenues of foreign investment in Urban Transport Sector. The Chairman Lahore Transport Company will hold meetings with experts and management of transport companies operating in Turkey and would give briefing on Bus Rapid Transit System in order to attract investment, it added. It is important to mention here that Korean company had already shown its interest for investment in the transport sector. However, back in the country the situation is totally different as the transporters are not willing to bring buses at roads. The strength of buses came down from 1100 (during 2002 to 2006) to less than 500 and the number of transport companies operating in the city fell from 14 to almost six. It seemed the dream of Punjab chief minister regarding better transport in city would take years to come true, a passenger commented.