Government has no option but to increase fares of People’s Bus Service in phases – Sindh Transport Minister
Karachi
Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon said on Saturday that due to current economic situation, the provincial government has reduced its expenditures and made cuts on development projects but no cuts have been made in public transport projects.
The minister pledged to complete all the projects on priority basis and added that people’s bus service and EV Bus would be started on all major routes of Karachi.
While talking to media after inspection of BRT Red Line Corridor, the minister said that the Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had given him full support to complete the public transport projects.
The minister added that he visited BRT Red Line project with project consultants and contractors to inspect the pace of work.
He said that due to unprecedented inflation in the country, the cost of project has increased and contractors were facing difficulties to maintain the pace of work. “When they started work on the project the iron cost was Rs.140000 per ton which has increased to Rs.310000 per ton.”
The minister said that they held detail discussion with the contractors and assured them that their genuine issues would be resolved and also talked to Asian Development Bank on the matter. “On the assurance from Sindh government, the contractors have paced up the project two days ago.”
The minister said that after the assurance to contractors, Sindh government would not accept any compromise on the speed of project as citizens of Karachi were facing severe problems. He admitted that citizens of Karachi who use university road were facing troubles and apologized with the people for the difficulties. He added that once the project completed it will benefit the people.
He said that government is well aware of situation and its machinery is on the field to complete the project as soon as possible.
He said that people’s bus service, Pink Bus Service and EV Bus has received tremendous response from the citizens. “More routes would be functional within a week or fortnight.”
Responding to question, he said that fares of people’s bus service are under review and added that due to inflation in the country and increase in diesel prices people’s bus service could not be operated on current fare structure.
He said that Sindh government has no option but to increase the fares. He said that the fare of people’s bus service would not be increased at once but in phases keeping in view the difficulties of common people.
Earlier minister visited the under-construction Corridor of BRT Red Line along with consultants, contractors. Secretary Transport Abdul Haleem Shaikh, GM Construction Trans Karachi Pir Sajjad Sarhandi briefed the minister. (PR)
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