Staff Reporter Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has issued funds worth Rs2.5 billion for the new bus service in Karachi to meet the growing requirement of passenger buses. According to details, Sindh Transport Minister Owais Qadir Shah on Thursday said that CM Murad Ali Shah has released funds for the purchase of new buses for Karachi. He further said bus operation would run under the public-private partnership. According to the plan, the Sindh government will buy 100 buses for the provincial capital and 100 for Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Mirpurkhas cities. “An international tender will be floated to purchase 200 city buses which would hit the roads of Karachi and other five districts of Sindh,” said Owais Qadir. The transport minister said that the process might take seven months for completion. Last year in May, the Sindh government had inked an agreement to run 1000 public transport buses on roads of Karachi. Provincial transport minister Shah told a press conference that the government had signed a transport agreement with a Korean company for the provision of 1000 buses for the city. “Under the agreement, 200 buses will be plied on the roads of Karachi within 60 days of the signing of the transport deal”, the minister said. Furthermore, the Sindh government has decided to shift the truck stand from Mauripur to Northern bypass. Senior Member of Board of Revenue Qazi Parvez told the chief minister that the land had been identified, but its entry in the revenue record was yet to be made. The chief minister directed the SMBR to finalize all the legal requirements within next 15 days and report to him. The chief minister also ordered the concerned department to build inter-city bus terminals along Super Highway/motorway over an area of 100 acres. The chief minister said when he had already approved the summary, then why the transfer of land had been delayed. He directed the SMBR to transfer title of the land and report to him within 15 days.
