KARACHI, Sept 19: Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil on Tuesday said that the city government had sent PC-1 envisaging tax structure for 5,000 CNG buses to be inducted in Karachi to the federal government for approval.

Nasreen Jalil pointed out that after the approval of PC-1, the project of introducing 5,000 new CNG buses would be implemented in the next five years.

She said the federal government had agreed to provide Rs5 billion to be used for providing incentives to transporters, she said adding that the amount will be released phase-wise during the period.

She said that the city government had decided to set up CNG stations at various bus depots and terminals with private sector cooperation to support the CNG bus operation. She further said that an elaborate phased programme was being chalked out for shifting of old diesel buses to CNG.

She said various analytical reports had established that traffic pollution had cast grave effects on human health.

The transport and communication department had prepared immediate, short and long term plans to control this menace, she said adding that these will be implemented with comprehensive planning for which cooperation of Sindh government, transport department and traffic police was being sought.

The naib nazim said that a programme was under implementation for phasing out rickshaws to control pollution problems caused by them. As an immediate step, registration of two-stroke rickshaws had been banned.—APP