Staff Reporter
Lahore’s double-decker tourism bus, providing sightseeing services to tourists, has been facing severe financial challenges amid an acute shortage of funds.
The monthly income of the double-decker sight-seeing bus has dropped to RsRs0.9 million from Rs1.5 million. The project used to get a budget of Rs7 million from the government but after 2018, the authority which is plying the tourism bus did not receive a single penny.
Now the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab (TDCP) is bearing additional costs of the tourism bus. In 2015, then Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had inaugurated Pakistan’s first sightseeing double-decker bus service for tourists in Lahore. The double-decker bus service, namely “Sightseeing Lahore”, was part of a project of the TDCP to promote the cultural and historical heritage of the province. It is pertinent to note that the sightseeing Lahore Bus Service additionally started tour services from Gaddafi Stadium, Football Ground, to Wagah Border in 2017.
In 2015, then Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had inaugurated Pakistan’s first sightseeing double-decker bus service for tourists in Lahore.