KARACHI, Nov 28: The city government will extend all support to Chinese firm First Automobile Workshop which intends to set up an assembly plant for diesel and CNG buses in Karachi, said the city Nazim Karachi at a meeting with a delegation of the firm here in his office on Wednesday.

The delegation was led by Yan Feng.

Mr Feng informed the city Nazim that his firm had entered into a technology transfer agreement with the Automobile Corporation of Pakistan (ACP), and briefed him about the future plans of his firm in Karachi.

The delegation informed Mr Khan that their firm was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in China with 14 factories and 80,000 employees. It produced buses, trucks, cars and other light and heavy vehicles.

They informed the city Nazim that they planned to manufacture large dual- fuel buses in Karachi in cooperation with the ACP. Their plant would produce about 150 buses a month.

The Nazim Karachi said the city government would like to be one of the stakeholders in the project, adding the city government would provide land and other essential facilities for the plant.

The delegation welcomed the idea. They said the first delivery of their buses in Pakistan had been made for the Green Bus company, a leading participant in the Urban Transport Scheme (UTS). The Company had ordered about 30 such buses. The remaining 25 buses of their order would arrive in Karachi soon from China.

It was decided to organize a symposium jointly to which all stakeholders of the UTS would be invited where queries about CNG buses would be addressed. The symposium would be held soon after Eidul Fitr.

The meeting was attended, among others, by the ACP chariman. The director- general of the Karachi Mass Transit Programme, Malik Zaheerul Islam, was also present.—PPI