KARACHI - Provincial Minister for Transport Awais Qadir Shah announced on Saturday the government would bring 1,000 more buses to the city under People’s Bus Service.
The transport programme had come under severe criticism after the provincial government under the then transport minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah had announced bringing 50 buses to the city under this programme and brought only 10 buses. Later, these buses went off roads due to certain issues pertaining to payment to the company running the buses. The announcement was made by the incumbent transport minister on Saturday during a presser in which he said that they have inked an agreement with Daewoo to run 1,000 public transport buses on Karachi roads gradually.
“Under the agreement 200 buses will be brought on Karachi roads within 60 days of the signing of the transport deal,” the minister said and added that later it would be doubled in two months. He said that the government was blamed for neglecting the city and instead they had served the masses and the announcement would bring relief to the commuters in the city. He said that they had planned to bring these buses for green line project but later had to announce for other routes after the federal government decided to bring its own buses.
“It seems the green line project will not be completed even by 2020. We could not keep lid on other bus projects for this bus service,” he said. He said the Orange Line bus project has been delayed due to some obstacles.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has however criticized the government over the announcement and said that the PPP has only announced 200 buses during 11 year tenure in Karachi.
“It is shame for them,” said the party’s provincial lawmaker Jamal Siddiqui and added that similar announcement of 200 buses was made in former chief minister Qaim Ali Shah tenure but never materialized.
Karachi is a city of 200 million and it is a joke to announce 200 buses to meet its transport needs, he said and added the announcement was made due to pressure of federal funded projects of Rs162 billion announced by PM Imran Khan for Karachi a few days back.
