KARACHI: The Sindh government will formally launch on Tuesday the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Intercity Bus Project with initially 50 buses to be run between Karachi and five other cities of the province, it emerged on Sunday.

Under a public-private partnership contract with the government, a private company Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service Ltd will cover five routes from Karachi to Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Benazirabad and Larkana.

Officials said the project worth Rs2 billion was originally scheduled to be launched a few months later but the company agreed to start part of it early as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

Read: Intercity bus service to begin on 23rd

A total of 100 buses were to be included in the fleet in the first phase according to the contract, the officials said, adding that the remaining 50 buses would be put on the roads within next three to four months.

“The Daewoo company is starting part of this Public Private Partnership (PPP) project as a goodwill gesture,” said Transport Secretary Taha Farooqi while speaking to Dawn.

He said a formal agreement to put 50 buses on the road between the provincial government and the private company was signed lately. He explained that the launch of the 100-bus fleet service was the first phase of the project. In the next phases — to be designed and publicised later — 400 more buses would be included in the project covering some other destinations also.

He said Rs2 billion had been allocated for the project that included 100 buses and establishment of terminals in various cities.

A working paper of the public-private partnership policy board stated the Sindh transport and mass transit department with the collaboration of the finance department had advertised the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Intercity Bus and Terminal Project under an International Competitive Bidding (ICB) process.

The project covers a total of five routes starting from Karachi to Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur, Benazirabad and Larkana.

Officials said Daewoo Pakistan was a single bidder that submitted its bid in response to the request for approval (RFP) in the bid evaluation process.

Besides, they added, the financing for the project, as was set out in the RFP, was divided into 25 per cent equity and 75pc commercial debt. After the negotiations with the preferred bidder (Daewoo Pakistan) it had been decided that 20pc of the commercial debt would be provided by the Sindh government as ‘mezzanine debt’.

The officials said the policy board approved the bidder as the selected developer and operator for the project. They said of the 25pc equity, the Sindh government would invest 12pc and the preferred bidder would arrange for the remaining 13pc.

They said as the project was being formally launched on April 14, the private company had already got its terminals in Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, while makeshift arrangements had been made in Mirpurkhas, Benazirabad and Larkana, which would be used until the terminals with required facilities were put in place in the coming months.

“This project will serve the people living across the province a great deal as tens of thousands of people travel between Karachi and other parts of Sindh on a daily basis,” said a senior official.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU), which was signed with the foreign transport company at the CM House last month, said the Daewoo Express agreed to bring 100 buses on the route between Karachi and the five divisional headquarters in the first phase of the project at a cost of Rs2 billion. The Sindh government’s share would be Rs645 million while the remaining amount would be borne by the Daewoo Express.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2015

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