Karachi CNG Bus Project: Bank Financing Issue Resolved

Some good news after a long time ....... Lets see how long it takes to physically see these buses on the roads..............

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

KARACHI (August 11 2010): The city is going to have 500 new CNG buses under, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Transit CNG Bus Project before October 2010 as bank financing issue has almost resolved. All outstanding issues related to the much delayed project was discussed in a meeting between the Ministry of Environment and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) here on August 3.

The meeting which was chaired by the federal secretary Ministry of environment was also attended by the representatives of Sindh Government, City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and CNG bus operators. In the meeting, sources said, the reservations of banks regarding the multi-millions project were almost cleared by the bus operators and CDGK. To finalise the remaining small issues a meeting with the banking sector was also scheduled to be held on August 11 (today).

It is worth mentioning here that local and international commercial banks and development financial institutions (DFIs) led by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had shown interest in providing loan to the pre qualified manufacturers and suppliers of CNG buses. The buses with private and public support would run on at least 40 routes of the city. Under the project the selected and qualified banks led by SBP, would provide the 80 percent loans, while the government would also provide the subsidy of at least Rs 0.7 million for each bus.