LAHORE, Feb 18: Daewoo Pakistan will start its seventh express bus service in the Punjab on the Lahore-Faisalabad route from Wednesday morning.

Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service chief executive CI Park made the announcement at a press conference here on Monday.

He said there would be 15 daily departures each from Lahore and Faisalabad. The buses would not stop anywhere along the 200-kilometre route and cover the distance between the two cities in an average of two and a half hours. Between Lahore and Pindi Bhattian they will travel on the motorway.

Mr Park said that Deawoo buses will start plying on Rawalpindi-Faisalabad and Multan-Faisalabad routes from August this year. Armed guards, he said, would be deployed on the buses for the security of passengers.

He said the company had launched its first express bus service in 1998 and was operating 30 buses on Lahore-Rawalpindi, 10 on Lahore-Sargodha, 18 on Lahore-Multan and seven on Multan-Rawalpindi (via Sargodha) routes. Six vans, he said, were being operated between Rawalpindi and Murree.

Mr Park said Daewoo would start operating its express bus services in other provinces in two to three years. Feasibility of a bus service between Peshawer and Mansehra, he said, was being examined at present.

He defended Deawoo’s higher fares saying its operation costs were nearly twice those of its competitors.