Sharjeel announces launch of Peoples Bus Service in Nawabshah

The Sindh government will launch the Peoples Bus Service in Nawabshah city in the coming week. Sindh Senior Minister for Transport, Information, Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Sharjeel Inam Memon disclosed this while speaking at a press conference on Sunday.

He informed media persons that the Peoples Bus Service would be launched in Nawabshah after the successful operations of the intra-city modern commuting facility in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana.

He also told journalists that the provincial transport department was going to launch two new routes of the Peoples Bus Service in Karachi. One of the new routes will be from Hawkes Bay to Merewether Town and the other 36-kilometre-long route will be from Saadi Town to Merewether Tower.

Memon told the media that the Sindh transport department had already launched a free shuttle service for connectivity between the Green Line and Orange Line sections of the bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

He said that an automated fare collection system had already been launched for passengers of the Peoples Bus Service and reconstruction work had been started on Jam Sadiq Bridge. Memon explained that the number of female-only pink buses had been increased on different routes in Karachi on the directives of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Faryal Talpur.

The Sindh government had launched Pakistan’s first-ever electric bus service for commuters in Karachi, the information minister said, adding that the Sindh government would bring more electric buses to facilitate the commuters.

“It is a matter of pride for us that the [federal] finance minister while presenting the new federal budget announced that the pink bus service will now be launched in the entire country,” he said, adding that the PPP was the first one to envision such a service.

The transport minister urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to fulfil his commitment to the Sindh government of providing 150 passenger buses. To a question, Memon said that criminal cases had been lodged against those involved in affixing a fake official registration plate to a private vehicle.

He warned that there would be zero tolerance against motor vehicles using fake registration number plates as the Sindh government had already launched a crackdown against such unlawful practice.

He said the crackdown would also cover the vendors involved in the preparation of the fake registration plates. The transport minister said the Motor Vehicle Ordinance was being amended to prevent the use of any vehicle without its registration in the province. “After this amendment, a prospective buyer could purchase only a registered motor vehicle,” he said.

He explained that earlier, a buyer had time of 60 days to register a new vehicle but after the law was amendment, any vehicle leaving the showroom would be required to have a proper registration.

Memon informed the media that anyone violating this amendment would pay a fine of Rs1 million. He said the provincial excise department would introduce this amendment to the Motor Vehicle Ordinance.

The information minister said 137 people had been apprehended in the last three months in the ongoing crackdown against the menace of drugs in the province. He said that various forms of drugs had been recovered from those suspects.

He said that a rapid response unit of the Sindh government’s excise department would conduct the crackdown against drug trafficking. He said a telephone helpline 021-111374634 had been launched to receive public complaints in this connection.

He said drug tests would be conducted on students enrolled in schools and colleges only after obtaining permission from their parents. He added that the identity of any student showing a positive test result would be kept confidential as only his or her parents would be informed about it.