KARACHI: On the demand of citizens and increasing popularity of the Sindh Peoples Intra-District Bus Service, the transport department is set to start the service in Clifton, Defence Housing Authority and Gulshan-i-Hadeed routes very soon.

According to a statement issued on Monday, the decision has been taken in a meeting chaired by Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, who also holds the portfolio of transport.

“It was also decided in the meeting that Peoples Intra-District Bus Service will start its operations in Larkana from July 16 with a fleet of 16 buses,” it said, adding that there would be four routes of the bus service in Larkana.

It said the deputy commissioner of the district had been given the task of planning and submitting a proposal for launching new routes.

The transport minister also asked the National Radio Transmission Company (NRTC) to finalise the additional routes of Karachi in consultation with independent experts within two days.

He issued directives for deployment of officials of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority at the command and control centre of the Peoples Bus Service.

Mr Memon also called for addition of technology-based system to the service, which would equip the buses with the facility of real time tracking, Wi-Fi facility and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

The meeting was attended by transport secretary Abdul Haleem Sheikh, Sindh Mass Transit Authority managing director retired Captain Altaf Sario, DC-Larkana Tariq Manzoor Chandio, NRTC project director Sohaib Shafiq, Operations Manager Abdul Shakoor, experts Naveed Hassan and S. Safdar Kazmi.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2022