KARACHI, April 2: Under the urban transport scheme, 207 new buses will be inducted by September this year while 137 buses are already plying on various routes of the city.

EDO transport and communication Dr. Tahir Soomro informed the Sindh minister for labour and transport Mohammad Adil Siddiqui while giving a briefing about UTS here on Friday.

He said as per the directives of the Sindh transport minister all facilities to the transporters are being provided to improve transport system.

"Landhi Depot has been opened for new transporters while orders for opening of Korangi depot are awaited," he said, adding handing over of new depots would induct more buses in the present fleet.

He also sought the minister's support for expediting the implementation of his order for inter-city bus terminal so that operations could be started soon.

Further, emphasising upon the need for early handing over defunct KTC depots, the EDO sought assistance for removal of bottlenecks in utilisation of depots.

The Sindh government is providing all incentives to transporters for improvement of urban transport services. This includes subsidy on loan mark-up at the rate of six per cent on non-air conditioned and nine per cent on air-conditioned large size buses.

Share of the city government in the subsidy is two per cent while major share is coming from the Sindh government.-APP