ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration on Wednesday notified reduction in the CNG public transport fares by 20 per cent.
Transporters have temporarily decided to implement the revised fares but demanded that there should be separate fares during CNG loadshedding days.
The plan could face bottlenecks if the issue regarding fares for loadshedding and non-loadshedding days is not resolved.
It is worth mentioning here that on October 25, the Supreme Court ordered the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to lower prices by Rs30 per kilogramme (kg).
The authority obliged and issued a price reduction notification the same day.
After Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments announced a reduction in fares, it was expected that the ICT administration would follow suit. With the recent announcement the capital administration seems to have gone into implementation mode.
According to spokesman for ICT administration, the new revised CNG fares have come into immediate effect.
The administration has followed the notification issued by the Punjab Transport Department — using it as a model — regarding decrease of CNG public transport fares following 25 to 30 per cent decrease of CNG transport fares.
According to an official of ICT administration, earlier minimum fare of the public transport was Rs16 which has been reduced to Rs13 and maximum fare brought down from Rs41 to Rs35. It means the fares have been reduced by 12 to 20 per cent, he said.
Secretary, Islamabad Transport Authority, Khawaja Maqbool has directed the transporters to ensure compliance with the new revised CNG transport fares.
According to the revised fares, Rs13 would be charged for a journey upto 4km, Rs18 from four to 8km, Rs21 from eight to 14km, Rs26 from 14 to 22km, Rs31 from 22 to 30km and Rs35 would be the fare from 30km and above.
Rawalpindi-Islamabad Transport Union President Malik Mohammad Sultan, while talking to Dawn, confirmed that the revised fares had been implemented in Rawalpindi.
However, in Islamabad the revised transport fares will be enforced from Thursday (today) because till late in the evening the fares’ list could not be provided to the transporters.
“There are 25 routes in Rawalpindi and 15 routes in Islamabad. Over 200 vehicles are being used on each route. We can afford to reduce fares because of fewer rates of CNG but during CNG loadshedding, we have to run our vehicles on petrol. So the administration should ensure availability of CNG seven days a week for public transport or fix separate fares for the loadshedding days,” Mr Sultan demanded.