The Sindh government has signed an agreement with Turkish and Chinese companies to operate 250 Diesel hybrid buses for the Sindh Intra-District people bus service project.
The agreement was signed between Sindh Mass Transit Authority and National Radio & Telecommunication Corporation.
Ambassadors of both countries and Sindh Transport Minister Awais Shah attended the signing ceremony. The Pakistani government has given Rs 8 billion for the project.
Speaking at the occasion, Minister for Transport and Mass Transit Department, Government of Sindh, Awais Shah said, “the government has given Rs 8 billion to the transport department for the project in a very difficult time.”
“It is the first project of 250 intercity buses, while another agreement for 150 will also be finalized soon. It is a maiden positive step in the public transport sector in Karachi,” Shah added.
The provincial minister in the Sindh cabinet meeting earlier in April briefed that his department would procure electric buses under the Sindh Intra-District People Bus Service Project.
He told the cabinet that these buses would operate in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, and Shaheed Benazirabad. The minister told the meeting that the Mass Transit Department has hired a professional consultant.
Later the cabinet approved the proposal and gave go-ahead to the transport department to procure the buses.
Previously 40 additional buses on the Green Line Project reached from China. The second consignment of Green Line buses arrived at Karachi Port and brought the total number of buses to 80.
Buses in Pakistan are one of the best ways of road transportation for many cities with good passenger-carrying capacity. Day by day the bus companies are modernizing their fleet with the latest buses imported from different bus manufacturers in the world like China, Korea, and Japan.
Some of the buses are being assembled here in Pakistan where the main parts are imported from abroad. Most of these bus operators use Daewoo, Yutong, KingLong, Volvo, and higher luxury buses.
