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Thursday March 28, 2024

‘Over 30 illegal bus terminals operational in city’

By our correspondents
April 20, 2017

Transport minister says plans afoot to shift terminals to suburbs

There are around 35 to 36 illegal inter-city bus terminals operational in Karachi and nine in Hyderabad. The government is working on plans to shift these terminals to locations outside the main city area by the end of 2017.

This was stated by Sindh Transport Minister Nasir Hussain Shah in response to written and verbal queries during question hour of Tuesday’s Sindh Assembly session.

The minister said illegal bus terminals were operational in Karachi’s districts East, West, and Malir and steps were being taken to shift them out of the city on a gradual basis.

As per the transport department’s plans, public buses originating from Thatta, Badin, Umerkot and adjoining areas would have a stop in Karachi’s Quaidabad area. Similarly, inter-city buses from towns in Balochistan would have a stop at Yousuf Goth in Baldia Town where an existing bus terminal of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation would be upgraded.

For inter-city buses from Hyderabad and adjoining towns in Sindh, a terminal would be built along the Super Highway to prevent these vehicles from moving inside Karachi. Shah said a shuttle bus service would be available to take passengers of these inter-city buses to areas within main Karachi.

The transport minister informed the house that the Sindh government had approved a scheme to introduce a fleet of 500 diesel-powered buses for routes connecting Karachi with other divisional headquarters of the province. He added that the government was also speedily working to revive the Karachi Circular Railway.

To a question, Shah said the government had through notifications prescribed fares for intra-city and inter-city public buses, including those using Compressed Natural Gas. He stated that strict action was being taken by the provincial transport authorities against operators charging more than the prescribed amount.

He said provincial transport officials had been directed to respond immediately to any such complaint, particularly during various holiday seasons. 

On March 29 this year, Sindh’s chief minister announced a two-billion-rupee subsidy for Karachi’s transporters to ply 600 more vehicles in the city to meet the growing requirement of passenger buses.

The announcement was made at a meeting held at the CM House on intra-city and inter-city bus services.

Transport Minister Nasir Shah had said at the meeting that there was a shortage of 8,000 buses in the city and so a new mechanism would be adopted to include at least 600 new vehicles to meet the requirement to some extent.

He added that launching the under-construction bus rapid transit network would also help alleviate the transport issues.

The chief executive said his government would assist the private transporters in the form of a subsidy for a period of five years.

“The government subsidy of Rs2 billion will be placed with the Sindh Modaraba Management Limited (SMML) before the publication of the advertisement,” he said, adding that the debt-to-equity ratio would be 70:30. “The transporters’ equity would be 15 per cent and the remaining 15 per cent would be provided by the provincial government in the shape of interest-free loan, which needs to be repaid by the transporters to the SMML within a year.”

CM Shah said the government would provide 30 per cent credit risk guarantee for the outstanding principal loan amount, excluding the Sindh government equity. The transport department also proposed starting an intercity project under the same mechanism as the one proposed for intra-city travel.

Under the proposal, the provincial government would bear the cost of insurance of the vehicle, which would be insured through Sindh Insurance Ltd, and it would be around 5 per cent of the value of the vehicle. The chief executive said that only locally assembled vehicles would be financed.