A fleet of 16 refurbished CNG buses will start operating in the city today (Wednesday) from Surjani Town to Merewether Tower, said Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) spokesperson Bashir Ahmed Sadozai on Tuesday.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had directed in September 2014 to bring the buses on road within weeks; however, the government could not meet the deadline and the buses had to wait until now due to non-availability of funds, an official from transport department said.
“The maintenance contractor of the buses is a foreign company which failed to repair the buses on time,” the KMC spokesperson said and did not tell if the government did not pay funds on time which caused the delay. “It costs millions of rupees to repair these electronic buses, which has an alternative ignition system of card in it as well to control different functions.”
He said engineers and spare parts of those hundreds of millions rupees buses had to be brought from Korea. Sadozai said the 16 buses would be run by KMC until it could be auctioned to a contractor. “This is what the government could do. It has bought and repaired the buses and fixed Rs 20 fare for any distance,” he said.
A fleet of 11 other buses was expected soon which would ply on a new route of CNG buses.