KARACHI, Dec 10: Scania’s 32 large-size buses, shipped from Sweden, are scheduled to be unloaded from ship at the Karachi port on Thursday.

Officials in the transport department said the ship “Sondos”, carrying the buses from Sweden via Athens, would be berthed at the port on Thursday and City Nazim Naimatullah Khan would attend a welcome ceremony at the Karachi Port Trust in the afternoon.

They said a fleet of new buses in such a large number was being imported after 25 years. The Scania bus service is likely to be launched in January, which would bring a positive change to the transport situation of the city.

The officials said that the Swede-Bus Pakistan was bringing foreign investment into the transport sector and would invest five million US dollars in the first stage, besides introducing a healthy trend of competition.

The buses would be imported duty-free and the company would not get any subsidy from the government.

The company has been given the North Karachi depot on a lease and it has been allotted two routes: from North Karachi via Lasbella and Nazimabad to Tower, and from North Karachi via Sohrab Goth and Liaquatabad to Tower.

The company would build 200 bus stops along the designated routes.

The service would operate daily from 5:30am to 11pm. However, the fare and the date of launching of the bus service would be decided later.