KARACHI, Sept 27: The Sindh transport department has handed nine bus depots of the defunct Karachi Transport Corporation to the city government.

An official said that the depots would be used for inter-city and local bus terminals which would help reduce illegally established bus terminals on government land by some influential transport people.

He said that the chief minister had okayed the summary for handing over of nine KTC depots to the city government, which had to clear Rs1.69 billion dues owed by the of KTC.

This amount was loaned by the World Bank and the Sindh government for golden hand-shake scheme for the employees of the defunct KTC.

Besides, the official said, the city government would also have to pay the outstanding utility dues of Rs 201 million against the KTC.

The KTC was disbanded in 1997 due to financial crunch and about 3300 employees were retrenched through golden handshake scheme. The World Bank and the Sindh govern-ment had provided loans of Rs 1,263 million and Rs 233 million respectively for the golden handshake scheme, he added.

In 1996, the Sindh government had evaluated the cost of the KTC depots which was as follows; Korangi Depot is spread over 24 acre and its cost is estimated at Rs 30.7 million, Mehran Depot 10acre, Rs80.5 million; Landhi Depot three acres, Rs20.76 million; Sarjani Depot two acre, Rs20.62 million; North Karachi Depot five acre, Rs90.64 million; Malir Depot 12 acre, Rs180.43 million; Gulistan-i-Johar Depot eight acre, Rs170 million; Model Depot, including driver training school seven acre Rs16.61 million and Orangi depot six acre Rs70.6 million. The total cost of depots is Rs674.86 million.

Earlier, the Sindh government had decided to dispose of the depots to clear its outstanding dues but the Sindh High Court disallowed the sell off.

The official said that the city government would generate revenue to clear the outstanding dues through parking fees to be paid by inter-city and local buses parked on the KTC depots.

The city government would pay Rs1.69 billion to the Sindh government in six yearly instalments, he maintained.

"Currently, the Pakistan Rangers possesses three depots, including Malir Depot, Gulistan-i-Johar Depot and Mehran Depot while Peerabad Police Station is established at Orangi Depot, Site Town administration has set up offices at Model Depot. Two terminals are under control of private transport companies but their services remains abandoned for over one year. A UTS company is operating bus service from Landhi Depot.

The official said that the city government would soon start negotiations with the respective department for evacuation of the bus depots.—Online