LAHORE, Feb 27: Minister for Tourism Mian Aslam Iqbal told the house on Thursday that his department had recently signed an agreement with a Chinese firm to import 200 buses.

Answering a written question put up by MMA legislator Ehsanullah Waqas, he said the first consignment of 20 buses was supposed to have reached the country by Dec 27 under the agreement, but that did not happen due to some unavoidable circumstances.

A delegation of the firm visited the province in January to evaluate roads condition so that the buses could be manufactured accordingly.

The delegation assured the authorities that the first consignment of 20 buses would be dispatched soon.

Currently, the department had no buses and the drivers recruited for the purpose were discharging other duties, the minister said.

Replying to a question raised by PML-Q’s Shehla Rathore, the minister said the department had planned a chair-lift project from Mahmood Booti to the Lahore Fort, but it was found in a study that the project was not feasible due to high-tension electricity wires in the way and that construction of its pillars in the Ravi would cause flooding.

Mian Aslam also told the house that the TDCP neither owned a rest-house nor a hotel in the province. It had developed some resorts to promote tourism, which had been leased out to the private sector.

He said the TDCP was not managing the Kamran Baradari. However, it had arranged some recreational functions there in the past and planned to do so in future as well. To another question, he said the department would execute the Head Marala Resort project as soon as it had enough funds for the purpose.

A survey was conducted for the project two years ago.