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| July 21, 2007 | Saturday | Rajab 05, 1428 |
KARACHI: Chinese aircraft firm offers CNG buses
KARACHI, July 20: A team representing the Chinese firm, M/s Yunma Aircraft Manufacturer Ltd., manufacturers of aircraft and CNG buses, intends to meet Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Karachi Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal on Monday with an offer to operate green buses in the metropolis.
This was stated by Mr Shehzad Akhtar, chairman of the Wisdom Alliance, the local representative of the Chinese firm, here on Friday.
He said that the firm’s overseas representative Mr Zong Li Han and managing director of the Wisdom Alliance Akbar Ali would also accompany the team at the meeting.
He said that according to a careful estimate, Karachi immediately needed at least 5,000 CNG buses to replace the smoke-emitting buses currently plying across the city.
“We are interested in operating CNG buses in Pakistan,” he said, adding that the operation could create more than 20,000 jobs for skilled and qualified local youth.”
He said M/s Yunma was a major public sector company in China’s defence sector, producing heavy buses. The firm supplied JF-17 thunder jets to the Pakistan Air Force, he said.
Mr Shehzad said that Yunma had the capacity of supplying 300 dedicated quality CNG buses per month and could also offer such buses to the interested local transporters at a competitive price.
He said that Chief Minister of the NWFP Akram Khan Durrani and the Peshawar nazim had already asked the company to operate 700 CNG buses in various districts of the province, 100 in Peshawar at the initial stage.
He said that display centres and workshops for these buses would be set up soon in Karachi and Peshawar.
He noted that the federal government had offered soft term credit to transporters operating CNG buses.
The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has chalked out a coordinated programme to facilitate movement of pedestrians and for the purpose pedestrian bridges are being constructed on certain sections of Shahrah-i-Pakistan, Rashid Minhas Road, Sher Shah Suri Road, etc.
City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal has directed the CDGK’s transport department to carry out a survey of all such roads where construction of overhead bridge is inevitable.
Speaking at a meeting where ensuring safety of pedestrians on roads was reviewed, the nazim pointed out that minimizing the risk of pedestrians getting hit by vehicles while crossing a road or walking along it was the prime concern of the city government. He said that steps were also being taken to solve transport and traffic jam problems in the city.
He observed that the signal-free corridor and the construction of flyovers at congested intersections had resulted in a smooth flow of traffic but such facilities had created problems for pedestrians, who were now finding it very difficult to cross a busy road with fast-moving vehicles.
He, however, maintained that flyovers, underpasses, parking plazas, bus terminals, overhead bridges and wide roads were required to be built and the government would continue work on such projects round the clock to provide relief to citizens.
Mr Kamal told the meeting that Rs56.50 million was earmarked for the mass transit programme and Rs300 million for the repair and rehabilitation of roads, footpaths, intersections and roundabouts in the current financial year.
He said work on the second signal-free corridor – between Nagan Chowrangi and Sharea Faisal – would start soon, adding that the transport department was preparing the plan for alternative traffic routes during the construction of flyovers at Jauhar Morr and Askari-IV areas.
The nazim said that tenders for the construction of CNG stations at five locations would be opened on Saturday. These installations, he said, would provide refueling service to the large-size CNG buses arriving from Holland soon. He said terminals for CNG buses would also be constructed.
He said that the plan to bring in 8,000 CNG buses under a phased programme was ready and implementation of the plan would bring about a remarkable change in the city’s transport culture.
—APP
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