Rs285m allocated for LTC operation cost

LAHORE
THE Punjab government has allocated Rs285 million for the operation cost of Lahore Transport Company in the 2015-2016 Punjab Budget despite the fact that the company was originally established as a self-sustaining non-profit body.
The LTC was established under the company’s ordinance of 1984. It got its transport responsibilities in Lahore in December 2001. The then PML-N Punjab government started the company with a seed-amount of Rs150 million to cater for the initial operation and running cost. It was told that the company would work in a way that it would generate the funds for its expenses; however, the operational and upfront subsidy for the inducted buses would be provided by the government, if need be.
However, since its establishment, LTC continues to draw funds from the government kitty for its ever-expanding operation. Starting from the basic function of attracting investors to ply buses in the city public transport system, the body took over the responsibility of fare regulation for the public transport both High Occupancy (buses) and low occupancy (wagons).
In addition to this, it took on the task of route planning and regulation. The LTC did a good job at this fare regulation although it relied on the Divisional Regional Transport Authority (DRTA) for the implementation of the fair.
Later; however, LTC expanded the circumference of its operation to ‘Enforcement’ as well and its enforcement staff grew from 30 enforcement officers to over 180 currently. All of them were being paid Rs40,000 and above, depending on their rank. With the DRTA present in the Punjab Transport Department, this section of LTC is more or less redundant.
The allocation for LTC which was a little over Rs200 million last year has now increased by Rs85 million as critics expressed their concerns regarding parallel institutions to manage public transport in the provincial metropolis unnecessarily eating away at government funds.