KARACHI: Within a year of its launch amid much media fanfare, the electric bus service of the Sindh government faces a threat of complete closure after two of its three routes have been suspended abruptly, leaving thousands of passengers in quandary, officials sources said on Monday.

The one route still working is also operating less than the designated number of the high-tech public transport carriers.

The week began for the thousands of passengers of the electric buses on two different routes to know the shocking fact that the buses they were waiting for would no more be in service.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an official confirmed that the two routes — EV-1 and EV-3 — had been suspended for “an indefinite period” without mentioning reasons and only citing “some crucial issues”.

The EV-1 starts from Tank Chowk near Jinnah Avenue and passes through the airport area, Sharea Faisal, FTC, Korangi, and Khayaban-i-Ittehad to culminate at Clock Tower at Seaview.

Buses are being plied on only one of the three routes in the city, claims an official

The EV-3 starts from Malir Cantt Check Post 5 and passes through Safoora Chowrangi, Mosamiyat, Kamran Chowrangi , Perfume Chowk, Millennium Mall, Dalmia, Aga Khan Hospital and Liaquat National Hospital to reach M. A. Jinnah Road.

“The service on these two routes is no more operational,” said the official.

The official, however, insisted that the EV-2 that started from Bahria Town Karachi towards Malir Halt and passed through M9 Toll Plaza, Baqai University, Jinnah Avenue, Malir Cantt and Tank Chowk to end its journey in Model Colony was “working fine”.

The service started facing jerks a few weeks ago as the half of the total 40-bus fleet started gathering dust after one of the two power stations faced capacity issues and failed to charge all high-tech public transport carriers.

Two power stations for total 40 electric buses were initially deployed in Bahria Town and Malir Cantt. The one in Bahria Town is working fine and 20 electric buses dedicated for its route are operational.

“However, the one in Malir Cantt is constantly facing serious power supply and voltage fluctuation issues,” said a source privy to the recent history of the electric bus service’s operations.

“It hardly charged the required number of buses a day. So the electric buses on the two other routes have been lying parked in the depot for the past many weeks. Therefore, the management decided to bring in the regular red diesel buses of the Sindh People’s Bus Service to bridge the gap. But all of a sudden, those buses have also been pulled out of the roads and the operation on the two routes have been suspended,” the source added.

Launched in January this year, the electric buses faced several hiccups, mainly due to issues related to charging of their batteries since it started its operation. In April, the service of electric buses on two routes was stopped and it remained suspended for over two months after the charger being used for recharging the batteries had ‘started malfunctioning’. Finally, the service resumed in July, following the import of a new charging system from China.

“The service has been facing the issue related to the charging of the batteries since the launch,” said the source. “The power station of these buses in Malir Cantt doesn’t get the required power supply to charge all the buses. There are two types of chargers — 160kV and 180kV. With a little than required supply or power, they are unable to charge the required number of buses,” the official added.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2023