Transporters oppose Chinese buses import

[LRE]

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
By Moayyed Jafri

LAHORE

TRANSPORTERS have expressed reservations about the import of Chinese CNG buses due to their past experiences with the vehicles and lack of infrastructure for their maintenance.

Talking to The News on Monday, the office-bearers of the Urban Transport Union said they were concerned about the induction of the Chinese buses because of technical and financial reasons.

Citing the past experience with the Chinese buses, UTU President Arshad Khan Niazi said a local transport company imported 52 buses from China, which did not last even three years. Discussing the causes of the demise of the Chinese buses, he said that they could not run on the rugged road conditions and needed maintenance frequently. Secondly, spare parts for the bus were short in supply and they were too costly.

The UTU president said importing buses from India was a better option as they were more suited to our communication infrastructure and were cost-effective as well. He argued that a CNG bus from India cost around Rs1.5 million whereas the one from china cost around Rs 4 million. He suggested that after the recent elections in India, the relation would hopefully improve and the government should try to negotiate a deal with Indian manufacturers instead of rushing into a buying spree with the Chinese companies.

Mr Niazi pointed out the lack of infrastructure to cater to the repair and maintenance services of the Chinese vehicles would prove a major contributor to their failure as the CNG engines would be a new concept for mechanics. He said it was highly unwise to import buses from China in bulk as was being done by transporters on the government’s proposal because the vehicles should be evaluated for their performance and maintenance facilities.

He suggested around a dozen of the vehicles should be imported to test their performance first. The government’s plan to import around 800 buses would be catastrophic if they did not prove beneficial for the transport system, he added

He said that the inherent high price of the Chinese Busses puts the transporters on the back foot as they are already facing tough times as the banks have stopped lending money to them after the recession due to oil price hike.

The transport owners appreciated the government for taking a positive step by providing 25 per cent subsidy on the imported buses but added that the subsidy was insufficient to encourage transporters to buy the buses. They demanded the government create soft loaning options and special packages for transporters in this regard if they were serious in implementing this environment-friendly transport system.

Meanwhile, Regional Transport Authority Secretary Chaudhry Iqbal completely rejected the idea of the bulk import of the Chinese buses bringing any problems as he said the company had assured of maintenance services and supply of spare parts.

He said the prices of Chinese buses were nominally higher than the Indian buses but the Indian buses could not be imported because of the government policy against it. He said the government had given a subsidy on the Chinese busses and that was what it could do right now.

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