Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister, Justice (Retd) Maqbool Baqar on Wednesday, added another 80 buses to the Peoples Bus Service (PBS) fleet in a simple ceremony, the new buses include 30 hybrid and 50 electric vehicles. With the addition of 80 new buses, the city’s fleet now comprises 300 buses, including 18 Pink Buses. This he said while speaking at the inauguration ceremony of adding a fleet of 80 buses, including 30 hybrid and 50 Electric buses in the Intra-city Peoples Bus Service at Mazar-e-Quiad.
Those who were present on the occasion were Minister Home Brig (r) Haris Nawaz, Minister Education Dr Rana Hussain, Minister Information Ahmad Shah. According to the Chief Minister, as of mid-2015, there were 3.6 million registered vehicles in Karachi, which is over 30 per cent of the national total. Private vehicles, mainly motorcycles and cars, make up about 84 per cent of the total number of registered vehicles. The Chief Minister further added that the growth rate for private vehicles is over four per cent, which means that there are now over 1,000 new vehicles being added to the streets of Karachi each day. Justice Baqar pointed out that there are more than 12,000 public vehicles, including buses, minibuses, and coaches, operating on 267 routes in the city.
However, the number of buses has been declining steadily, and as of 2017, less than 5,000 buses were serving fewer than 100 routes. He emphasised that a city as big as Karachi should have at least 15,000 modern buses. Owing to the lack of intra-city public transport, the Sindh government and NRTC signed an agreement in October 2021 for the supply, operation, and construction of the Sindh Intra-District People’s Bus Service Project, said the CM. The Sindh Peoples Intra-District Project is a government-to-government (G2G) initiative between the Sindh government and NRTC.
It was launched in June 2022 and is the first-ever Intra-City Public Transport Project operating in mixed traffic, especially in Karachi and other cities of Sindh, such as Larkana, Hyderabad, and Sukkur. The Project is basically for the Public and is to be operated/run through the Public Private Partnership.
The Project is designed to integrate state of the art bus operations model consisting of high-quality Diesel hybrid bus service to meet the increasing urban transport demand in Metro Cities and contribute to the development of a sustainable transport system. Project Current Status: Secretary Transport Asad Zamin briefing the CM said that currently, 204 Buses of 12m and 9m are in operation on 11 routes in Karachi, while six Buses are operating in Larkana, 12 in Hyderabad on two routes, and 10 in Sukkur.
Operation of the first Women-Exclusive Public Transport Service is already operating in the city with nine Pink Buses on R-01, and another nine Pink Buses on R-02. The Pink Buses project is operating successfully and is drawing huge recognition from all the concerned quarters. In consideration of the fact the provincial government has increased the number of buses, an addition of 30 more buses has been made in the existing fleet. 50 electric buses:
The Telephone Industry of Pakistan is a subsidiary of the National Radio Telecommunication Corporation already engaged in a flagship project with the Sindh government has submitted a proposal through its international partners to develop an eco-friendly Electric Vehicle System in the province. The initiative is on the Rent to Own model under which the Sindh government will pay nominal lease payments including the operational and capital costs for eight years, after completion of the lease period (8 years) the Buses will be handed over to the provincial government.
