KARACHI, Sept 13: The summary on handing over of four bus depots to city government from the Sindh government for utilizing them as inter-city bus terminuses has been pending with the provincial finance department for the past six months causing financial losses to the city government.

Well-placed sources in the city government said that the transport and communication department of the city government had demanded possession of four depots — Mehran, Orangi Town, Landhi and Gulistan-i-Jauhar — and sent the summary to the provincial government.

“We expect a net profit of Rs2.75 million in the first year, Rs3.013 million in second year, Rs3.315 million in third year, Rs3.646 million in the fourth year and Rs4.011 million in the fifth year as revenue generation would increase gradually,” said an official.

He said: “We planned to levy Rs100 per bus per day as terminal charges but the revenue generation would begin only after the depots were given in the city government’s possession.”

He pointed out that there were more than 2,700 buses shuttling between Karachi and other cities.

The inter-city bus operators have been using illegal bus terminuses elsewhere in the city while the city government was suffering heavy financial losses due to the delay in the handover of the depots, sources claimed.

The sources said that all illegal inter-city and inter-provincial bus terminuses in the metropolis would be removed following an approval by governor of a plan to re-develop the four depots.

Marathon meetings had been held between officials of the city government and representatives of the inter-city bus operators after which the operators had agreed to shift their illegal terminuses to those designated by the city government, they claimed.

They said operators of such buses would use these depots as terminuses and would not be allowed to establish makeshift terminuses elsewhere. “This would be in line with people’s demand that inter-city bus terminuses be removed from the congested areas as they are not only adding to traffic woes but are also causing many other problems”, an official maintained.

He said that the summary was sent to the governor through the provincial transport minister but the transport department had referred it to finance department, some six months back, as it related to revenue generation. Since then, the summary is with the same department pending an action.

The sources said that once these terminuses started functioning, almost 150 illegal ones, including those at the Old Sabzimandi on University Road, Lines Area on M. A. Jinnah Road and Lyari.

They said that in order to streamline movement of inter-city and inter-province buses entering or leaving Karachi from three gateways — Super Highway, National Highway and RCD Highway — and to minimize traffic congestion on city roads due to illegal parking of such buses in a large number, it was planned to utilize depots of the now-defunct KTC after converting them to inter-city/inter-province bus terminuses.

The sites to be retrieved from the KTC properties for the purpose would prove to be readily available facilities which could easily be converted to terminuses without putting in any initial investment.