KARACHI: The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) Transport and Communication Department (T&CD) might scrap the procurement process of further CNG buses due to paucity of adequate funds.
The total cost of adding 21 CNG buses to the existing fleet of 75 was estimated at Rs 63 million while the CDGK had twice invited tenders for the buses and had also received bids from the interested investors.
Earlier, the CDGK had cancelled the lowest bid on reasons that the successful bidder could not furnish certificates of a strong financial position and the technical ability to run the bus fleet. Thus, the tenders were invited again and the bids were received for the final settlement. However, the bids received were discarded and the onward procedures were sent to the files for good on the pretext of lack of funds.
City Administrator Fazlur Rehman recently vowed that the CDGK would not close down any development projects in the city because of paucity of funds.
The T&CD for the fiscal year 2010-11 has 26 development schemes for which Rs 616.500 million have been allocated. It is pertinent to mention that the department has 114 traffic signals to look after and Rs 26 million have been allocated just for the maintenance and repair of these 114 traffic signals.
While talking to Daily Times, T&CD Executive District Officer Iftikhar Qaimkhani said the CDGK T&CD has not yet dropped the scheme of procuring the new CNG buses but due to lack of the required cash flow, the scheme could not be completed during the last fiscal year.
He added the scheme has been included in the 2010-11 budget with certain possibilities including that either the provincial government would provide the required sum of money or private investors might come forward, whom the CDGK would fully support or even the CDGK might earn enough revenue to fulfil the task itself.
“We have to wait until December to see if the CDGK gets the required revenue or else the project would further linger on until the required revenue is in hand,” commented Qaimkhani.
The total cost of adding 21 CNG buses to the existing fleet of 75 was estimated at Rs 63 million while the CDGK had twice invited tenders for the buses and had also received bids from the interested investors.
Earlier, the CDGK had cancelled the lowest bid on reasons that the successful bidder could not furnish certificates of a strong financial position and the technical ability to run the bus fleet. Thus, the tenders were invited again and the bids were received for the final settlement. However, the bids received were discarded and the onward procedures were sent to the files for good on the pretext of lack of funds.
City Administrator Fazlur Rehman recently vowed that the CDGK would not close down any development projects in the city because of paucity of funds.
The T&CD for the fiscal year 2010-11 has 26 development schemes for which Rs 616.500 million have been allocated. It is pertinent to mention that the department has 114 traffic signals to look after and Rs 26 million have been allocated just for the maintenance and repair of these 114 traffic signals.
While talking to Daily Times, T&CD Executive District Officer Iftikhar Qaimkhani said the CDGK T&CD has not yet dropped the scheme of procuring the new CNG buses but due to lack of the required cash flow, the scheme could not be completed during the last fiscal year.
He added the scheme has been included in the 2010-11 budget with certain possibilities including that either the provincial government would provide the required sum of money or private investors might come forward, whom the CDGK would fully support or even the CDGK might earn enough revenue to fulfil the task itself.
“We have to wait until December to see if the CDGK gets the required revenue or else the project would further linger on until the required revenue is in hand,” commented Qaimkhani.
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