KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the traffic problems in Karachi are becoming serious day by day and the existing public transport facilities are not enough to cope with the situation. “Therefore, intra-city bus projects are need of the hour.”
He was addressing the financing agreement signing ceremony here at the CM House on Wednesday. The agreement was signed between Transport and Mass Transit Department and Sindh Modaraba for launching intra-city and inter-city bus projects.
The ceremony was attended by Minister for Information & Transport Syed Nasir Shah, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Sindh Modaraba Chairman Bilal Shaikh, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi and others.
The chief minister said that he had been given details of the project by Minister for Information and Transport Syed Nasir Shah. “I am quite satisfied that he has adopted a workable approach to solve the transport problem in the city,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Transport Minister Syed Nasir Shah said that intra-city people’s bus scheme was aimed at improving transport facilities for the people of Karachi and this would complement the mass transit system like BRT corridors and KCR.
Nasir further said that the Sindh Transport & Mass Transit Department had launched the scheme in collaboration with Sindh Modaraba Limited in order to give the transporters certain incentives.
Talking about the incentives, the minister said, “Sindh Modaraba Limited shall charge a mark-up rate of KIBOR plus 3.50 percent, while the transporters shall bear the burden of flat 5.00 percent mark-up. The difference shall be borne by the provincial government.”
He added that the loan tenure would be maximum of five years.
He said that the transporters would pay 15 percent of the upfront cost of vehicle while another 15 percent would be borne by the Sindh government as interest-free loan, repayable by the transporters within a year.
Nasir further said that the Sindh government would bear the cost of insurance of the vehicle, which would be insured by the Sindh Insurance Limited and would not be more than 5.00 percent of the value of the vehicle.
It may be noted here that advertisement of the scheme had been published on September 13, 2017 wherein the request for proposals was made available from October 10, 2017 from the Official website of Sindh Modaraba Limited and the office of Sindh Mass Transit Authority.
Intercity Peoples’ Bus Scheme
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the present transport system was insufficient to meet the growing demands of commuters.
He added that the Sindh government planned to introduce some schemes/incentives through Sindh Modaraba Limited to facilitate commuters in different parts of interior Sindh.
Enumerating the incentives to be provided to the transporters, the CM said these included, “The total cost of vehicle shall be contributed by the department to equity ratio of 70:30 – the 70 percent financing shall be made through SML, while the transporter shall pay 15 percent of the vehicle cost and the other 15 percent shall be borne by the provincial government as interest-free loan.”
He added that “SML shall charge a mark-up of KIBOR plus 3.50 percent, while the transporter shall bear the burden of flat 5 percent mark-up. The difference shall be borne by the Sindh government,” he went on saying “The Sindh government shall bear the cost of insurance which shall not be more than 5 percent of the value of the vehicle.” In case of inter-provincial routes, a minimum of 70 percent routes shall be deployed within Sindh.
The advertisement of the scheme was published on 24th September 2017 wherein the Request of Proposals will be made available from 10th November 2017 from the official website of Sindh Modarabla Limited and the office of Sindh Mass Transit Authority.
The Transport Minister, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, said that through these schemes, the provincial government would be able to fulfil its commitment it made with the people of Sindh to provide them qualitative, comfortable and affordable transport facilities.
Secretary Transport Saeed Awan and CEO Sindh Mudaraba Naeem Farooqui signed the financing agreement for inter-city as well as intra-city bus projects.
