Sindh Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Thursday launched a smartphone app enabling intending passengers of the Peoples Bus Service to live track the movement of buses and also obtain other vital information about the intra-city commuter service in Karachi and other cities.
The new app is available for users of both iPhone and Android smartphones, and enables them to find out the bus fares, timings and other vital information about the Peoples Bus Service. The app will also enable the provincial government to monitor the bus service in real time.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, the transport minister said the Peoples Bus Service was launched to provide the best and most comfortable commuting facilities to residents of the urban parts of the province.
He said residents of the urban areas had warmly welcomed the launch of the Peoples Bus Service. The Sindh government has also launched an electric bus service and a pink bus service in Karachi, the latter of which is specifically for female passengers, he added.
Memon said that under its aim to expand the Peoples Bus Service to every urban centre in the province, the government launched the modern transport facility in a total of seven cities in just a year.
He said the provincial government has been providing a subsidy of millions of rupees every month to ensure that people in urban Sindh receive comfortable and inexpensive mass transportation facilities without any interruption.
He also said that the provision of modern mass transit services is included among the priorities of the Sindh government. He added that work is under way for building the Red Line section of the city’s bus rapid transit service (BRTS), whose buses would run on the environment-friendly biogas.
The minister said the provincial government would spend a total of Rs200 billion to build the Red Line and the Yellow Line sections of the BRTS in the city.
He said the farm sector and the mineral resources of Pakistan have the potential to turn around the national economy. He added that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has the experience of working in both sectors for the good of the country’s economy.
He also said the provincial government has been offering incentives to both local and foreign prospective investors to establish new industries in the province for the improvement of the economy and the generation of employment opportunities for the locals.
Memon told the audience of the app launch ceremony that billions of rupees have been reserved in the new provincial budget to carry out development works.
He also mentioned the May 9 violence, saying that miscreants had damaged three buses of the Peoples Bus Service in Karachi, adding that the drivers of the other buses had been smart enough to save the other new passenger carriers. He said that during its rule over the past 15 years, the PPP has done exemplary work in the health and other sectors of public service.
Under the same drive, he added, 26 satellite units of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) have been built at different locations in the province. He recalled that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s regime had planned to shut down the NICVD. He announced that Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has been keeping in touch with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the inclusion of the proposed Karachi Circular Railway project in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor regime to ensure its swift completion.
The information minister also said that work is under way to improve the road network, rehabilitate the flood victims and ensure quick disposal of garbage from the urban centres of the province.
On the occasion, certificates were awarded to the staff members of the Peoples Bus Service who had intelligently and daringly acted to save the buses of the service from harm during the May 9 violence in Karachi.