Karachi: Caretaker Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Sindh Muhammad Younis Dhaga has said that the private sector should be encouraged under public-private partnership projects to fill the gap in public transport for Karachi.
The officials of Sindh Transport Department gave a briefing on various projects to Sindh Provincial Minister for Finance, Revenue and Planning and Development Muhammad Yunus Dhaga at the Sindh Secretariat.
During the briefing, Sindh Caretaker Minister for Planning and Development was told that according to the World Bank report, a total of 15,000 buses are required for Karachi’s comprehensive transport system, while currently only 1,029 buses are plying on the city’s roads. .
He said that 240 buses of the People’s Bus Service, 100 buses of the BRT and 689 old buses of the private sector are running, while work is underway on route feasibility for the purchase of another 500 buses for the province.
It was told in the meeting that in the light of the World Bank report, 13000 more public transport buses are needed in Karachi to meet this gap. In addition, the caretaker minister was told that the transport department should bring forward the private sector. A plan to provide soft loans to local private transporters through the establishment of an endowment fund is under consideration and in this context it is also proposed that these loans be provided at zero markup rate.
In the briefing, it was informed that the local transporters of Karachi will also be consulted on the issue of the buyer of the buses, while these purchased buses will be in the name of the Sindh government until the transporters pay the full installments of the loans of these buses.
The participants in the meeting agreed that the proposal would enable local transporters to buy new buses on soft loans with the help of the government and continue to play their role in public transport with better services for the city.
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