LAHORE, Sept 8: The City District Government is considering improvement in the management and facilities at the Badami Bagh General Bus Stand at a cost of over Rs50 million through public-private partnership.
This was stated at a briefing to DCO Khalid Sultan who is also the chairman of Regional Transport Authority by Infrastructure and Finance Development Service representative Agha Najib Raza on Monday. Mr Raza will also brief Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood on the project in anticipation of entering into a franchise with the CDG for the bus stand management.
The DCO said the CDG had planned to improve drainage and roads at a cost of Rs42.96 million, develop additional parking facilities at a cost of Rs3 million, build bays for bus washing at a cost of Rs5 million and spend Rs4 million on an electronic surveillance system. It wanted to set up an effective system for recording and redressing public complaints and ensuring departure of buses strictly on first-come-first-serve-basis through an electronic monitoring system. It also wanted to check overcharging and ensure wearing of uniforms by the vendors after their registration.
He said the bus stand required improvement because neither the users nor the administration was satisfied over its existing condition.
He said outsiders having nothing to do with the business were issuing tickets at the bus stand and extorting Rs800 to Rs1,000 per trip from the bus owners in the name of handling charges for providing protection to their buses from being impounded by the traffic police. The CDG had thrown them out and arranged issuance of tickets by its men supported by guards in uniform. The brothels and unauthorized PCO at the bus stand had been closed and drug traffickers thrown out by a task force constituted for the improvement of the stand.
He said the CDG had discontinued recovery of the parking fee from the transporters through the contractor because he had given a bid to recover a minimum Rs303,000 daily whereas the actual collection was much lower than Rs300,000 per day. Offering of a higher bid meant that he wanted to generate money from resources other than the parking fee which could not be tolerated.
Mr Sultan said the CDG was willing to award a contract for the improvement of the bus stand to private sector in case it guaranteed daily parking fee collection of Rs303,000 with 10 per cent annual increase. There was congestion at the bus stand as it had been designed for 800 to 1,000 buses but was being used by more than 3,500 buses daily.
He said choice passenger picking times were being sold for hundreds of thousands of rupees because buses on certain routes were required to wait for their turn to pick passengers for up to 48 hours after arrival. The CDG planned to provide idle parking facilities to buses at the defunct Punjab Road Transport Corporation depot near Thokar Niazbeg on Multan Road. The buses waiting for their turn to pick passengers could be parked there. Similarly, 2,000 buses could operate from the bus stand proposed to be developed at Sikandria Colony on Bund Road.