Karachi: 500 CNG buses project ‘ready to kick off’

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Imtiaz Ali
All the homework with regard to plying 500 CNG buses in the city has been completed, Sindh Local Government (LG) Minister Agha Siraj Durani informed the Sindh Assembly recently.

In his written reply to a question by Nusrat Abbasi, the minister said that the project was “ready to kick off”, subject to the receipt of project funds from the federal environment ministry, approval for the “concession package” for the bus operators by the Sindh government, etc.

Durrani claimed that the federal government had already released Rs500 million to the federal environment ministry for forwarding it to the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) during the outgoing financial year 2008-09.

The federal government had approved the CNG bus project for Karachi on the recommendations of a study carried out under public-private partnership for introducing environment-friendly public transport system in the city. This project was finally approved by the federal cabinet on July 16 last year.

The minister said that the green buses introduced in 2003-04 under the CDGK’s Urban Transport Scheme could not sustain their service because of issues such as invoicing, mismanagement and absence of proper repair and maintenance facilities.

The federal government has allocated Rs300 million for 500 CNG buses under public sector development programme (PSDP) for Sindh-based schemes for the financial year 2009-10.

These buses were aimed at reducing air pollution as well as providing better transportation facilities to the citizens. The government would provide 80 per cent subsidy and all the buses would be owned by women entrepreneurs.

Replying to another question by Nusrat Abbasi, the LG minister said that about 3,000 buses were plying on different routes in the city, of which 481 buses were of the 1970 model, and used diesel fuel.

The minister said that these buses were causing pollution because of the use of high-sulphur content diesel. The CDGK had already approached the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in this regard, Durani said and hoped that with the implementation of CNG bus project, the old buses would be gradually phased out.

He said that the matter of converting rickshaws, Mazda and other coaches into CNG fuelling system was being pursued by the Sindh Transport Department.

In his written reply to yet another question by Ms Abbasi, the minister said that the Mass Transit Project in Karachi would be started “as and when the funding modalities are finalized” by the federal and provincial governments.

Siraj Durani said that Rs384.063 million have so far been incurred on the project since 1987. This amount included Rs69.602m for the study of phase-I in 1987-91, Rs154.923m for the study of phase-II in 1991-95, Rs50 million for the study of priority corridor-II in 1992-94, Rs3.922m for technical, financial and legal consultancies and topographic survey of 2003-2008, and Rs105.614 million for establishment purposes.

In his written reply to a question by Marvi Rashdi about the CDGK’s decision to sell garbage to private sector “without inviting tenders”, the minister said that a cement factory had proposed to the CDGK for using solid waste as refused derived fuel (RDF) for its specialized plant/technology. The request for the proposal was not invited for being a single line item, he said, adding, an agreement was executed with the factory for the sale of municipal solid waste (MSW) at Rs230 per ton from the landfill site subject to issuance of no objection certificate from the Chinese company to whom the collection of solid waste has been outsourced.

Subsequently, a public notice was issued /published in papers inviting offers for the sale/disposal of solid waste, he said.

Three more cement factories and two other companies expressed willingness to produce MSW as RDF on the same terms and conditions offered to the first company but none of these offers had been finalized as yet, he added.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=184225