KARACHI: A report from the World Bank has revealed that Karachi required a total of 15,000 buses to resolve the issue of the public transport system.
The report said that currently, the city operates only 1,029 buses on its roads, comprising 240 from the People’s Bus Service, 100 from the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and 689 older buses managed by the private sector.
Additionally, efforts are underway to assess route feasibility for procuring an additional 500 buses for the province.
During a meeting held at the Sindh secretariat, officers from the Sindh transport department presented these findings to Muhammad Younus Dagha, the caretaker provincial minister of finance, revenue, planning, and development in Sindh.
The World Bank report underscored the need for an additional 13,000 public transport buses in Karachi to bridge the existing gap. In response, Minister Dagha suggested that the private sector be actively engaged through public-private partnership projects to address this substantial shortfall in Karachi’s public transport.
Furthermore, it was disclosed that the transport department was contemplating a plan to provide easy loans to local private transport operators through the establishment of an endowment fund. The proposal included the idea of offering these loans at zero interest rates.
Another consideration was to offer soft loans to local transporters after they had acquired buses. These buses would be registered under the Sindh government’s name until the transporters fully paid off their loan installments.
Participants in the briefing agreed that these proposals would empower local transport operators to acquire new buses with government support and enhance the quality of public transport services in the city.
