Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry’s claims of making the federal capital the first city to have environment-friendly electric transport in Pakistan, his political rival Pakistan Peoples Party’s government in Sindh took the lead and launched the country’s first electric bus project in Karachi on Tuesday.
Sindh Minister for Transport Owais Qadir Shah inaugurated the project under public-private partnership. The electric bus will run from Tower to Sohrab Goth and the fare for one stop will be as low as Rs10. The project will begin with 10 bus stops. Sapphire Group’s bus has a capacity of 37 seats.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the provincial transport minister said that the electric bus would be run on a trial basis from Tower via MA Jinnah Road and Shahra-e –Pakistan to Sohrab Goth.
He said the fare will be Rs4 per kilometre and the public transport will run seat to seat, adding that the number of these buses will be increased on a monthly basis.
Soon after the news started doing rounds on social media, the sci-tech minister took to Twitter to congratulate the Sindh government, especially Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and his ministry, on their “remarkable step to add electric bus in Karachi Commuters system”.
He said his ministry fully supports the Sindh government in this “futuristic approach” and expressed the hope that the Punjab and Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments will also take the same route as soon as possible.
