Karachi is one of the business backbones, biggest industrial and trading centers of the country. Many Mega Development projects in other provinces like District Development Plan KPK and Leh Expressway Project Rawalpindi Punjab have been initiated. And now in Sindh, the long-standing Transportation Problem of the Karachiites seems to be mitigating to a certain degree as the Sindh Government has announced to bring 250 more buses on Karachi roads by the end of February 2022. The provincial government has signed an agreement with a national defense organization for the supply of buses, operations, and construction of bus stations to solve one of the Major Issues Of Karachi. Sindh Transport Minister Syed Awais Qadir Shah announced that these buses would come from National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), the defense ministry organization, the organization will also be responsible for supply, operations, and maintenance of buses along with construction and maintenance of bus depots, The minister told.
The minister for transport told that the government of the province was fully aware of the Transport Issues in Karachi faced by the public especially in the major cities of the province and that the government of Sindh is all set to mitigate the public grievances in terms of transportation. “Not only this, but under a rough estimate we believe that the project would create some 3000 jobs,” told the Sindh Transport minister. “The project faced some delay in the launch only because of the situation which had emerged due to the Covid-19 outbreak. But it’s better late than never. We also hope that this project will also generate revenue for the provincial government in terms of service tax. Once the project gathers pace, we would develop and expand bus depots and a number of buses that would become a kind of fixed assets of the provincial government”. “So by February 2022, we are very much hopeful that Karachi would be having this public transport service under the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA),” The Sindh transport minister was talking to reporters after witnessing a signing ceremony between his ministry and the NRTC.
The decision of the provincial government to bring 250 more buses on the Karachi roads comes at a time when the work on federal funded Karachi Greenline Bus project is in full swing and its operation is expected to start next month, another orange line project of the provincial government is also in its final stages. The government of Sindh has decided that out of the 250 buses the first 50 that are expected to be delivered next month would be operating in Karachi city on a 30 km route from Model colony to Tower and on another 33 km route from Nagan Chawrangi to Singer Chawrangi, he added.
The minister further continued that the government is focused to provide the basic transportation facility to the masses in Karachi and other urban areas of the province. He said that keeping in view the current scenario of the Karachi Intra-City Public Transport, SMTA has conceived an integrated bus operation system as a solution to the issues faced by the people in six major cities namely, Karachi, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, Larkana, and Shaheed Benazirabad.“The project faced some delay in the launch only because of the situation which had emerged due to the Covid-19 outbreak. But it’s better late than never. We also hope that this project will also generate revenue for the provincial government in terms of service tax. Once the project gathers pace, we would develop and expand bus depots and a number of buses that would become a kind of fixed assets of the provincial government” The minister concluded.
