Daily Times

KARACHI: The purchase of 80 busses for Green Line and 42 busses for Orange Line under the Bus Rapid Transport System has been delayed owing to malpractice of officials concerned, Daily Times has learnt.

The purchase accord of busses was approved back in 2016. Al-Buraq International (pvt) Limited of Turkey, one of the main bidders, was supposed to provide 122 buses for the projects as a part of a deal amounting to Rs1.80 billion. However, the company backed out of the deal when some government officials demanded heavy kickbacks, Al-Buraq Operations GM Tanveer Siddiqui told Daily Times.

The second international tender for the project, after the completion of formalities, was given to Lahore-based Crown Transport in 2017. Crown Transport bid was around Rs 1.63 billion.

Haji Muzaffar of Crown Transport said that Sindh government after the approval of tender failed to sign any accord within three months. He said that, in the meantime, the cost of busses had escalated manifold on rupee-dollar parity. “We had already submitted a refusal letter for not providing busses on failing government’s obligation and cost difference,” said Muzaffar.

The BRT project had been launched jointly by the Transport and Mass Transit Department (TMTD) and the Finance Department of the Sindh government in collaboration with the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit.

According to the details, members of Advisory Board, headed by the chairman of the Planning and Development Board had inked the accord with these companies. The Advisory Board included the chairman of the Urban Infrastructure Engineering Department, consultants from Transaction Advisory Consortium, the secretary of the Provincial Transport Authority (PTA), director generals of SMTC, TMTD, PPP Unit, the Municipal Commissioner at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and secretaries of TMTD and Finance and Law departments.

Commenting on the delay in the project, Transport Secretary Saeed Ahmad Awan said that now the ball was in the court of the upcoming government. Awan stated that a fresh deal would be possible in this regard after new government comes into power.

Speaking on condition of annonymity because he was not authorised to contact the media, a senior official of Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA) claimed that some senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders and a close aide of former president Asif Ali Zardari had been involved in both the project deals.

Refuting the allegations of the Turkish company and the local company, Nasir Shah, the former Sindh Minister for Transport, maintained that the the process was in accordance with the rules.

Hanif Mirchiwala, the director general (DG) of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority, attributed the delay in these two projects to poor policies of the outgoing government.

Between 1987 to 2017, number of registered vehicles in Karachi has increased from 0.5 million to 4.6 million, with an over whelming predominance of motorcycles (60%) and private cars (40%) in model distribution of vehicles, accounting for 20 percent and 25 percent of passenger load respectively.

In comparison, road network in Karachi suffers from menace of congestion and overcrowding.

Published in Daily Times, June 22^nd 2018.