04 December 2004	Saturday	21 Shawwal 1425

KARACHI, Dec 3: The city government has succeeded in bringing in only 225, as against its target of 500, large size buses by the end of this year and it seems unlikely that the target could be achieved in less than a month now.

Sources in the city government said on Friday that the target might be achieved till March next year. The pre-qualified firms of the UTS failed to help meet the target, they maintained.

Citing various other reasons for city government to miss the deadline, the sources said that if the things kept moving on the current pace, it would be even harder to meet the goal in the early months of next year.

They pointed out that one of the major causes of the delay appeared to be the lack of body-making facility at the available assembling units. There is only one unit having his facility, according to them.

"A number of orders have been placed but many of them are yet to be entertained,'' the sources said. At present, 100 large buses are to be manufactured/assembled by the units and it looks almost impossible for them to fulfil their commitment within this month.

According to the sources, lengthy process of acquiring loans from leasing companies, banks and other financial institutions was another reason for the failure of these firms. Meeting all legal and other formalities involved in the loan process takes months, they said.

The UTS was badly affected when exemption of duty on urban buses was withdrawn in June this year. "This had discouraged the concerned firms in bringing in new buses.

A number of orders were cancelled at that time,'' the sources recalled. However, the government reversed its decision on withdrawal of duty when the city nazim approached the federal authorities and requested it to reconsider the decision. -PPI