Karachi: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan People’s Party and Foreign Minister, on Monday launched hybrid buses in Karachi.
The Sindh government has imported the vehicles from China under the Sindh Intra-District People’s Bus Service.
A total of 240 buses will operate on seven designated routes in Karachi.
The launch of buses will add to modern mass transport facilities in Karachi after the start of the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit Service in the city earlier this year.
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Karachi’s Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab, and other members of the provincial cabinet were present.
They also took a ride on the bus on one of the busiest roads of Karachi, Sharea Faisal, to experience the facilities available to passengers of the new service.
Initially, the bus service has been launched on one of the seven routes in the city i.e. from Model Colony to Merewether Tower via Sharea Faisal and II Chundrigar Road.
A senior official of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority said that efforts were being made to launch on the rest of the routes in Karachi by August 14.
Apart from Karachi, the buses will also operate on one route of Larkana city.
Sharjeel Inam Memon, Sindh Minister for Transport and Mass Transit, told media persons that the minimum and maximum bus fares of the new service would be Rs25 and Rs50, respectively.
It is a very nominal fare given that passengers will get an air-conditioned, speedy and comfortable ride, he said.
Memon said the provincial government after launching the bus service in Karachi and Larkana would launch similar facilities in every district of Sindh.
He said that talks were under way with prospective investors from China and Turkey to build assembling plants in the province for local manufacturing of such buses.