KARACHI, May 20: Transport experts of Delhi and Karachi will share expertise, experiences and competence to improve the transport system of the two cities. Transport experts of the two cities expressed these views during a meeting of Indian Institute of Technology’s delegation with City Nazim Niamatullah Khan here on Friday.
The members of the delegation included Prof Danish Mohan and Prof Geetam Tiwari.
The nazim told the delegation that efforts were being made to improve the transport system of Karachi and the City Government Karachi was introducing 500 new buses under the Urban Transport Scheme while 17 companies were being provided facilities, including taxes to ply new buses on the city roads.
The nazim informed the delegation that under the UTS, 185 new buses were plying on city roads while more than 245 buses would be brought soon on roads.
The visiting Indian transport experts briefed the city nazim about various projects commenced in India to resolve transport problems of the Indian cities including Delhi.
DG Mass Transit Zaheerul Islam apprising the delegation details of Corridors of Mass Transit Programme in Karachi, said the first corridor was being constructed in Sohrab Goth, for which an MoU had been signed while strategy was being devised to update the remaining five corridors.
BUDGET: Talking to a 22-member delegation, led by District Mardan’s Naib Nazim Attaur Rehman, city nazim said that the fiscal budget of Karachi was never more than Rs5 billion in past, however after inception of the city district government, the first tax-free budget for the year 2002-03 was Rs20.5 billion and after gradual increase it had now exceeded Rs42 billion.
Niamatullah Khan said before inception of the local government system, any project initiated in the metropolis used to take 10-15 years for completion. “But the CDGK broke all records by constructing various flyovers in a limited span of time. Yet again, it was the city government to envisage desalination plants and in this regard approached local as well as foreign companies”, he added.
He said development of model parks for every town were part of its measures for providing facilities to people at their doorstep.—PPI