World Bank report says 15,000 buses needed for Karachi’s transport system

KARACHI: The World Bank report has revealed that a total of 15,000 buses are needed for the comprehensive transport system of Karachi while currently only 1029 buses are operational on city roads including 240 buses of People’s Bus Service, 100 buses of BRT, and 689 old buses operated by private sector.

Besides, work is in progress on route feasibility for the procurement of 500 more buses for the province.

The caretaker provincial minister of finance, revenue, and planning and development in Sindh Muhammad Younus Dagha was told these details by the officers of the Sindh transport department during a briefing on projects at his office in the Sindh secretariat here, said a spokesperson on Thursday.

It was informed that in the light of the report of the World Bank, around 13,000 more public transport buses were needed in Karachi to meet the gap.

During the briefing, the caretaker provincial minister Mohammad Younus Dagha directed that the private sector should be encouraged under public-private partnership projects to meet the huge gap in public transport for Karachi.

The caretaker minister was informed that a plan to provide easy loans to local private transporters through the establishment of an endowment fund was under consideration by the transport department to bring forward the private sector and in this context, it was also suggested that these loans be provided at the zero markup rate.

In the briefing, it was informed that after consultation with the local transporters of Karachi, a proposal was also under consideration to provide soft loans to the local transporters after the purchase of buses.

These purchased buses would be in the name of the Sindh government till the transporters pay the full installments of the loan of these buses.

The participants agreed that the proposal would enable the local transporters to procure new buses on easy loans with the government’s assistance and continue playing their role in public transport for the city with better services.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023