Agreement Between Daewoo & Pakistani Group for Manufacturing CNG Buses

'Government to Encourage Local Manufacturing of CNG buses'

ISLAMABAD (August 23 2008): The government wanted to encourage local manufacturing of CNG buses so that the project of plying 4000 CNG buses in Karachi meets with success. The Federal Minister for Environment, Hameedullah Jan Afridi said in a high level meeting to discuss the CNG bus project.

The President, National Forum for Environment and Health, M Naeem Qureshi and senior officials were present in the meeting. The Minister said this was a mega project and will take time as scores of issues including the availability of buses and installation of dedicated filling terminals have to be resolved.Provincial governments are the stakeholders and they need to own this project in the long run, he added.

'We want to start it as soon as possible. We also want to promote the local industry and expect local manufacturers to produce CNG buses locally. If they succeed, then there will be no need of importing buses from abroad. The local manufacturers have assured us that they can produce 4000 buses annually,' said Afridi.He further stated that these buses would be environment-friendly and will save foreign exchange paid against import of petroleum products.

A proper infrastructure will be developed for successful plying of CNG buses. 'We need to install high-pressure filling stations to the tanks within five to six minutes,' he added.

Bus Service in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD, Aug 20: Five firms have been short-listed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to run a bus service in the city on public-private partnership basis, it is learnt.
A CDA official told Dawn on Wednesday that the firms had experience in operating local and inter-city transport and included Daewoo and Varan Tours.

Since the private companies have intimated that they don't consider the venture “lucrative and profitable”, the CDA may have to subsidise the bus service, according to the official.
Originally, the CDA, as the public partner, was to open its roads to the chosen bus company and lease out land to gas station operators, the third partner in the venture, for establishing special CNG filling stations for the bus service.

Earlier this year the Capital Development Authority had selected a firm for operating a CNG-run bus service but the agreement collapsed when CDA refused the firm's demand for land to establish its own CNG station.

“Now the CDA has decided to lease land for the purpose to a third party, not to the bus company,” said a CDA official.

CDA has already notified a board, with government officials and representatives of the public on it, to manage the affairs of the planned public transport system.

“We will definitely put the system in place in four months,” CDA chairman Kamran Lashari reaffirmed to on Dawn Wednesday. He was confident that with the local administration and the Punjab Transport Authority on board it will be a success.

According to Mr Lashari the bus service is a component of the Mass Transit System (MTS) that is in the designing phase.

The MTS comprising buses, mono-trains and underground railway is planned to be a durable solution of the transport problems of the twin cities.

Daewoo and Varan are thought to be the leading bidders in operating the bus service. While the former has experience in operating bus services on inter-city routes, the later had operated buses in Rawalpindi and Islamabad a few years ago before a van operators’ cartel drove in the two cities drove it out of business through court action. However, Varan buses returned to the Rawalpindi roads, with some destinations in Islamabad, recently under new terms offered by the Punjab Transport Authority.

Islamabad has the unenviable distinction of being the only capital in the world which has no proper public transport system, leaving its car-less citizens to the mercy of greedy taxi drivers and van operators.

By international standards the federal capital's one million people should have 500 buses at their service. But the CDA's plan envisages running some 100 buses - with 30 to 40 in the initial stage.

KCR Project to Help Improve Environment

KARACHI (August 17 2008): A meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Environment under the chair of its Chairman, Senator Dr Mohammad Ali Brohi, was held here on Saturday to review a maga project of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) system, a project funded by Japanese company.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of Sindh government, City District Government, Planning Commission, Finance Division and representatives of KCR project During the meeting CNG bus project was also reviewed, for which the PM has already announced to provide five thousand CNG buses in the country.-PR

Latest From Dubai Metro

Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority has installed the first footbridge for Dubai Metro station users near Jebel Ali Industrial area on Shaikh Zayed Road.

"A total of 20 footbridges will be installed at metro stations to help people cross the busiest highway in the emirate to ride the metro," said Adnan Al Hammadi, director of construction at the RTA's Rail Agency. He said one bridge will be installed every week on Shaikh Zayed Road. He explained that each of the 47 metro stations will have pedestrian bridges either elevated or underground. The installation work for the pedestrian bridges will be completed by May 2009.

"The footbridges will provide 24-hour, air-conditioned and spacious public thoroughfares along the Red and Green lines of the Dh15.5 billion Dubai Metro Project," said Al Hammadi.

The Dubai Metro, the world's largest driverless metro project, consists of two lines, the Red and the Green. The Red Line is scheduled to be operational from September 9, 2009 while the Green Line will be opened in March 2010.

He said each bridge will feature moving walkways and escalators. The bridges will be open for use by the general public to cross the roads whether they use the metro or not.

According to Al Hammadi, the planning for the installation of the footbridges, which are being provided under the Dubai Metro Contract, has been going on for well over a year now.

A dedicated footbridge installation task force was assigned with heavy involvement from the Dubai Metro Contractor, RTA Rail Agency, RTA's Traffic and Roads Agency and Dubai Police to investigate how to install the footbridges and identify the optimal solution.

The key objective during installation is to minimise disruption to the public, while ensuring that their safety, as well as that of Dubai Metro workers, is not compromised.

The approved installation method involves full pre-assembly of the footbridge including the main structure of the bridge, the external cladding, internal fixtures and finishes, and electrical and mechanical items.

Since the resulting weight of the pre-assembled footbridges is well in excess of 200 tonnes, special self-propelled modular transporters (SPMT's), pneumatic lifting jacks and adjustable temporary bearings will be used to transport the footbridges into position and lift them onto their permanent support.

The installation of each bridge will be done at night during a period of low traffic with traffic control of Shaikh Zayed Road.

I Am In Germany Folks

Dear Readers! I am sorry i was not updating the blog because im moving to Germany and now I am here in Leipzig so want to share some of the wonderful mass transit pics I have seen here and travelling in them.