KARACHI: Provincial Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon on Friday directed Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and District Metropolitan Corporations (DMC) officials to clear all hurdles, encroachments and complete repair work along the routes of Sindh People’s Intra district Bus Service as Sindh government would launch it in last week of current month in all circumstances.
He said this while presiding over a meeting along with Provincial Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Minister Labour Saeed Ghani and Administrator Karachi Barrister Murtaza Wahab regarding launch of Sindh People’s Intra District Bus Service project, here on Friday at Sindh Mass Transit Authority office.
Sharjeel said that in first phase of the project, buses would start operating on two routes of Karachi, adding that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah would inaugurate the project.
The minister added that National Radio Transmission Company had conducted detailed survey on the proposed 7 routes of people’s bus service and identified the hindrances and suggested improvement/ repair of the routes. He said that District Administration, KMC, DMCs and traffic police should remove all the identified hurdles.
He stressed the need for developing a close coordination of the line departments as saying that no excuse or shifting of responsibility on each other would be heard as it is norm in the public sector. He suggested to form separate teams of KMC and DMCs and start work from today on the routes in coordination with Sindh Mass Transit Authority, National Radio Transmission Company.
He apprised the meeting that he and administrator Karachi Barrister Murtaza Wahab visited the route no.1 of the buses on Shah Ra Faisal and inspected the bus stops. He directed to make curve on Shahrah-e-Faisal for setting up bus stops so as to avoid accidents and unnecessary traffic jams on main artillery of the city.
He directed DIG traffic to mark the road according to width of buses along the Shahrah-e-Faisal and prepare traffic management plan for People’s Bus Service. The minister said that the interest of Karachi citizens in this project had increased since the arrival of first fleet of buses, so, no negligence or any delay in launching the project would be tolerated. The minister also directed to make bus stops of project on modern lines and attractive for general public.
Managing Director Sindh Mass Transit Authority Capt. (R) Altaf Hussain Sario and Project Director NRTC Sohaib Shafiq gave detailed briefing on the project routes, issues and obstacles. The meeting was also attended by Secretary Transport Abdul Haleem Shaikh, Commissioner Karachi Muhammad Iqbal Memon, MD Sindh Mass Transit Authority Capt (R) Altaf Hussain Sario, Project Director NRTC Sohaib Shafiq, Deputy Commissioner Central Taha Saleem, Municipal Commissioner KMC Syed Afzal Zaidi, DMC officers, DIG Traffic and others were also present.