Considering the ongoing energy crisis and the apathy of authorities concerned, the Pakistan People’s Party-led Sindh government is likely to shelve the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Transport Programme that envisaged 1,000 environment-friendly CNG buses for the public, Pakistan Today has learnt.
In year 2006-07, the federal government announced the project at a cost of Rs 2.5 billion, however, it was delayed following a lack of interest on part of the Sindh government.
And with the energy crisis going from bad to worse, authorities have been forced to consider shelving the project.
Under the plan, 500 CNG buses were to be introduced in Karachi by February 2008, while at least 1,000 buses were to be introduced in the entire province.
Among them, six hundred buses were to ply various intercity routes of the metropolitan, 100 on the Karachi-Sukkur route, 100 on Karachi-Hyderabad route, and 50 each on the Karachi-Larkana, Khairpur-Benazirabad and Mirpurkhas routes, sources said.
They said following the apathetic attitude of Sindh’s authorities and the political hustle-bustle, the financier of the project, the Asian Development Bank, pulled out of the project
Besides, the federal government also refused to provide the promised subsidy of Rs 700,000 per vehicle, citing “financial crunch” as the reason.
They said the Sindh Transport Department had forwarded two requests to the Centre to provide funding for the project, however, the federal authorities showed reluctance, citing “financial crisis” as the reason, they added.
The sources said had the transport programme materialised in time, thousands of skilled and unskilled youths would have been provided employment.
Recently, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) also completed all groundwork to initiate the long-delayed, multibillion-rupee Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Transport Programme (1,000 environment-friendly CNG buses), but the Pakistan People’s Party-led federal government seems reluctant to provide the promised funds in the midst of the ongoing financial crunch.
The sources added KMC Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed recently wrote to the Environment Ministry director general, informing him that the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto CNG Bus Project was ready to kick off.
The letter stated: “As you are aware, the World Bank had appointed Winrock International as a consultant in 2010 to train personnel and develop Project Idea Note (PIN) and Project Design Documents (PDDs) for streamlining the carbon trade funding under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for emission-reduction programme of the UNO. Accordingly, the consultants, in association with the KMTC, CDGK, had developed a PIN and the same was submitted to the CDM Cell in December 2010. Subsequently, the Cell was pleased to issue the Letter of Intent in January 2011 and advised to submit PDDs, so that the subject project activity for starting the process of getting approval from the host country in accordance with national development aims and objectives may be initiated. You are, therefore, requested to please use your good offices to pursue the consultants to develop PDDs at the earliest, so that further processing for credit financing under the standing Emission Control Programme be initiated in time as the CNG bus project is ready to kick off.”
Furthermore, the sources said the federal government informed the Sindh government that the project could not be started because of funds’ shortage. Rather, the government is mulling banning CNG cylinders in public transport to avoid further gas shortage, they added.
