Development finance: Funding woes threaten to derail mass transit train

So here comes the reality ................ as the fate of such projects ............ this will keep lingering on as the governments either provincial or federal in this country's history never have the resources at all. So all seems in vain.

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The fate of the Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS) project hangs in the balance as the federal government has yet to agree to be a guarantor to a $1.445 billion loan the Punjab government needs to obtain from China.

A Finance Department official speaking on condition of anonymity said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had broached the subject in a meeting with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani at Prime Minister’s Secretariat in the second week of August but no progress could be made.

He said earlier the Finance Department had already requested the Ministry of Finance to be a guarantor to the loan. “Provinces cannot secure foreign loans without the federal government providing a guarantee to the lender,” he said.

Meanwhile, a Transport Department official said that the Export Import (EXIM) Bank of China had yet to respond to a provincial government request, seeking processing of the loan. He said the provincial government had suggested that after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the provinces could secure loans on their own subject to conditions laid out by the National Economic Council (NEC).

Lahore Transport Company chairman Khwaja Ahmed Hassaan toldThe Express Tribune that the government had this week received a letter from EXIM Bank. However, he added, he was still unaware of the contents of the letter. Hassaan said a meeting would likely be convened in a couple of days in this regard.

An official said that under the two memorandums of understanding (MoU) signed between the provincial government and the Chinese firm, NORINCO, the latter was to ensure that processing of the loan took place without any glitches. Under the agreement, the provincial government was to bear 15 per cent of the cost of the project. The rest was to be provided by the EXIM Bank of China in the form of a loan. The total cost of the project was estimated at $1.7 billion.

The MoUs signed in April and July stated that NORINCO would lay the 27-kilometre (km) track from Gajju Matta, on Ferozepur Road, to Shahdara. As much as 7 km of the track would be underground.

The official said NORINCO had also agreed to obtain a letter of interest by EXIM Bank for the project within a month of the signing of the second MoU.

The official said no groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 14 as planned earlier because of the uncertainty about the funding for the project.

LTC chairman Hassaan said tenders will not be invited unless the Chinese company refused to undertake the project. He said the company had the right of first refusal under the MoUs.

The LRMTS project was first proposed in 1991 after a study carried out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In 2008, a feasibility study report was prepared by Systra, a French company, and a ceremony held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

(Read: Underpass on hold over mass transit concerns)

The Lahore Transport Company (LTC) is currently in charge of negotiations with the Chinese authorities.

LTC ready to Give 0.4 million Subsidy per Bus

Finally LTC comes to what it was suppose to do much before ........... giving subsidy to the existing bus operators ............. hit n trial policy

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LAHORE:

The Punjab government has decided to refurbish 300 off-road buses at a cost of Rs400,000 each as it struggles to attract investment in the city’s collapsing public transport system.

A proposal for the award of the contract for the repair of the buses to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) will likely be approved soon, an official familiar with the development told The Express Tribune. He said there were no plans to invite bids for the contract.

There are only 375 buses running in Lahore. In January 2009, the Punjab government announced plans to import thousands of new buses. Two years later, no new buses have arrived, despite the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) offering subsidies of Rs1 million per diesel bus and Rs1.2 million per CNG bus.

In June 2011, the LTC finally signed an agreement with a Chinese company for 300 new buses and the first batch of 111 was to arrive in August. But that too has been delayed. LTC chairman Khawaja Ahmed Hassaan said that a team of government experts would visit China next week for a pre-shipment inspection. He said the first batch of air-conditioned CNG buses 76, not 111 would arrive on September 15.

A Finance Department official said that the Chinese company had several concerns about the profitability of the venture. One concern was the availability of cheap rickshaws and vans and the lack of government action to remove them from bus routes. Another was the lack of a regulatory mechanism to facilitate investors, and the power of “the transport mafia”, the official said.

Hassaan said that transport companies had asked the Punjab government to help with the repair of a large number of off-road buses. He said that no contract had been awarded. The government had sent the NLC two buses to refurbish to create a template of minimum acceptable improvement for the other buses, he said. The owners would inspect the repaired buses and could then select any company to repair their vehicles, provided they did the essential repairs done by the NLC.

The government would pay up to Rs400,000 per bus. Any expense beyond that would be borne by the owner. He said that the LTC had also made an arrangement with SNGPL guaranteeing the supply of CNG to buses. He said 411 new and refurbished buses would be introduced in the city within a year.

Confusion over Right of Way at Kalma Flyover: Either for LRMTS, BRTS or for Model Town

The 10-metre road corridor beneath the Kalma Chowk flyover will be made into a one-way lane for motorists travelling to Model Town, even though it has been marked for use as a bus lane in plans for a citywide bus system.

Workers have begun paving the road corridor, after which they will start building slip roads around the flyover, which was ‘completed’ on August 14.

Sabir Khan, the project director for the works at Kalma Chowk, said that the road corridor would be made into a one-way lane for motorists travelling to Model Town. He said cars heading to Model Town via Ferozepur Road from the direction the Canal would be able to get onto the road corridor by taking a right at the traffic signal at Kalma Chowk. Vehicles from Gulberg’s Main Boulevard heading to Model Town would also get onto the road corridor from Kalma Chowk, he said.

Khan said the idea was to prevent the obstruction of traffic getting off the flyover and heading towards Kot Lakhpat by vehicles from Gulberg cutting across from a service lane to the left of the flyover to turn right at the entrance to Model Town. He said the corridor was a temporary solution until an underpass is built at the interchange.

The chairman of the Lahore Transport Company, which is making plans for the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) in partnership with a Turkish company, said that he had not heard about the road corridor being reserved for traffic to Model Town, but was certain that when the BRTS is built, the road corridor will be in use as a bus lane. “How can a less than half kilometre stretch of road be allowed to threaten a project of such dimensions?” said Khawaja Hassaan.

He said that the chief minister was very keen on the BRTS and was demanding regular updates on the progress of the project. He said work on the first phase from Gajju Mata to Model Town would be completed by August 31.

Another Lahore Transport Company official said that no notice had been received from the Communication and Works Department concerning the use of the road corridor. He said if the department had decided to use the road corridor for traffic heading to Model Town, it was a decision made without consulting with the LTC.

He said the corridor might also be needed for the Lahore Rapid Mass Transportation System (LRMTS) as an elevated level or underground. “It shows the lack of coordination between departments,” he said.

He expressed concern that if the road corridor was reserved for Model Town traffic, it would be hard to reclaim for later use as a bus lane. “I don’t see the Model Town underpass ever being built so the residents will not want to give up the road,” he said.

Model Town Society President Tahir Hussain Kardar said that he hadn’t heard from the project director since the flyover was inaugurated, but he had heard that the road corridor would be reserved for Model Town traffic after plans to build an underpass had been put on hold.

“We think it will be hard to construct an underpass here because of a lack of funds. I don’t know why they wasted the money on designing the underpass and other preliminary activities,” Kardar said, adding that residents would hold protests at the chief minister’s house in Model Town if the underpass were not built.

Chinese Firm LRMTS Concerns: Kalma Chowk Underpass Put on Hold

That's indeed the right thing done ........ as priority should be given to the LRMTS not CM's interests

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The Punjab government has decided to stop the development of an underpass at Kalma Chowk, days after Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif announced the project at theinauguration of the Kalma Chowk flyover on August 14. The government gave no official explanation for the suspension of the project.

The chief minister, at a meeting in the Civil Secretariat a couple of days ago, directed Communications and Works Department officials to suspend work on the underpass as the traffic congestion on Ferozepur Road had eased since the flyover had been opened.

Sharif had also announced at the Independence Day ceremony that after the Kalma Chowk underpass, another underpass would be built at the entrance to Model Town on Ferozepur Road. That project is also now on hold.

The chief minister told the C&W officials to prepare a feasibility report for an underpass at Qainchi Amar Sadhu, another of the traffic chokepoints on Ferozepur Road.

Rana Arshad, additional secretary for the Communication and Works Department, said that the department would start work on the feasibility report soon.

Officials suggested that there were two reasons the government has decided to delay building the underpass at Kalma Chowk.

A Planning and Development official said that the project could have had a negative impact on plans to build the Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS).

“We were surprised when Shahbaz Sharif gave the green light to C&W for the project as the Chinese [consultants for the LRMTS] had expressed concern about the effect that building an underpass at Kalma Chowk would have,” he said.

The consultants, as well as the Planning and Development Department, had asked the government to delay the underpass until a feasibility study of the LRMTS is completed, he added.

The official said that a lack of funds was another reason the underpass had been put on hold.

A city district government official said that they had been planning to fund the underpasses at Kalma Chowk and Model Town by selling government land repossessed in a recent drive against encroachments.

District Officer (Finance) Mian Waheed said that the city government had planned to borrow money from the Punjab government and then repay it after selling the land. “Now both projects are on hold we have more time to auction the land and maybe get a better price,” he added.

The chief minister’s decision appeared to disappoint the team executing the Kalma Chowk flyover and underpass projects, as they declined to talk about the matter.

Arshad, the additional C&W secretary, said the city government had not allocated any money for the underpass prior to the chief minister’s decision to suspend the project. Asked if the project had been delayed because of the LRMTS, he refused to comment.

Rafay Alam, a prominent environmental activist, welcomed the decision to suspend the underpass and said ament should instead focus on developing public transport.

Failure of LTC: Still giving ads for plying buses

LTC should realize now that it has failed badly as none of his policies have worked and since the tenure of PML-N .......... no bus has been brought on the road & still asking for expression of interests from the companies ........ Shame

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Karachi Bus Rapid Transit Project: Call to extend routes

KARACHI, Aug 16: While Japanese experts studying the feasibility of a transport project have planned two bus routes from suburban areas to the city centre, the city government has requested them to extend the routes by incorporating other parts of the metropolis in the plan.

The request was made at a briefing given by the Japanese experts on the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), a part of the Karachi Transportation Improvement Project, to a joint steering committee comprising government officials, said Karachi Mass Transit Cell (KMTC) chief Rasheed Mughal on Tuesday.

The study being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency is likely to complete by the end of next year.

He said that the two BRT routes — from Surjani Town and Safoora Goth to the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam — suggested by the Japanese team, headed by Minoru Shibuya, would cater to around 800,000 passengers on a daily basis.

Under the BRT system, a separate lane would be reserved for the buses to cut travel time drastically, he added.

He said the Japanese team suggested that the first route (being described as Red Line) buses would start their journey from Safoora Goth and end it at the Mazar-i-Quaid. Over 350,000 passengers used this route, mainly University Road, on a daily basis, he added.

The official said the other route buses would start from Surjani Town and reach the Mazar-i-Quaid after passing through Nazimabad and Golimar, according to the experts, though they were not clear about the right of way through the congested area of Golimar.

Over 430,000 passengers used this route on a daily basis, he added.

The KMTC chief said the city government officials told the Japanese experts that the passengers would face difficulties if the routes ended at the mausoleum.

They suggested to the team that the first route be extended up to Regal Chowk by including the Preedy Street corridor in it.

About the other route, the officials had two proposals. Firstly, they said, the route from Golimar onwards could include Daak Khana, Teen Hatti, Jail Chowrangi, Shaheed-i-Millat Road and Sharea Faisal. Secondly, they added, from Golimar onwards, the route could be diverted to Sharae Faisal via Shahrah-i-Quaideen.

Mr Mughal said the Japanese team liked the suggestions and told the city government officials that they would discuss the same with JICA. If the proposals were approved, they would continue with the study, the team members were quoted as saying. He said the team then left for Japan.

The experts would return within the next few weeks to start working on the second phase of the study, he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the CDGK was planning to organise a seminar to make people aware of the findings, suggestions and recommendations related to the project so that feedback of civil society and other stakeholders could be looked into and made part of the plan if deemed appropriate.

He said the study would complete by the end of 2012 and then implementation would begin. By 2016, the BRT would be operational with foreign assistance.

He said that separate lanes, bus stations and other infrastructure would be built and buses would be purchased under the Rs21 billion worth project. It would be operated through a private operator, with the government working as a monitoring body, he added.

LRMTS space allocation in Kalma Chowk Flyover

Just got this news that they do have given provision for LRMTS line while constructing the fly over ----------------------------------------------------------------

The Kalma Chowk flyover is underway and the bridge is set to be opened for traffic on August 14, though the construction of footpaths and installation of decorative tiles and other small works have yet to begin.

Talking to The Express Tribune, project director Sabir Khan said the inauguration would take place on the scheduled date.

He said some minor works including the shifting of electricity poles from the site would be undertaken after the inauguration. “We can’t move the electricity poles at the moment. It will cause severe traffic jams on the service lanes,” he said.

Khan said the carpeting of the roads would be complete in another day, after which they would begin painting lane markings.

The flyover is yet to be connected to Ferozepur Road. Khan said work was underway on one of the approaches, on the Gaddafi stadium side, and the remaining three would also be connected to the road before August 14.

Khan said work on underpass would begin immediately after the flyover is inaugurated.

A structure would be installed at the site to mark the inauguration of the flyover.

A 10-feet-wide space on Ferozepur Road in between the two sides of the flyover has been set aside for the Lahore Rapid Mass Transport System. Khan said minor repairs would be undertaken to beautify the space, though proper renovation would be carried out later and was not the responsibility of Kalma Chowk flyover project team.

The service lanes, he said, would be revamped after the construction of the underpass.

A National Logistic Cell (NLC) engineer said some decoration work would be completed after the August 14 deadline.

“We have been directed to ensure that nothing in the basic structure is left incomplete as of August 14. The flyover has to be opened for traffic for the project to be considered a success,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2011.

Chinese firm to run 2,000 CNG buses in Sindh & Punjab

Let's hope ........... this may become reality

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Chinese bus manufacturing company Foton Motors will sign a deal with the Sindh government tomorrow (Saturday) to operate 2,000 CNG buses on the roads of the province.

This was informed during a between the President Asif Ali Zardari and a delegation of Foton Motors Group.

The president said that it is a matter of great pleasure that the potential of traditional Pak-China trade was now being translated into economic terms and that Chinese investors were taking keen interest in exploring business opportunities in Pakistan.

The company has designed modern buses for Pakistan to meet specific cultural and demographic needs of the country with environment friendly fuels such as CNG, LPG and hybrid diesel and hydrogen fuel cells.

The president said that the aim is to transform Pakistan into one of the most attractive investment destinations and provide all possible facilitation for promotion of business ventures.

He said there was an urgent need for upgrading the existing transport network in the mega cities which in turn offers great investment opportunities to the national and international investors.

Earlier in the day, Foton Transport Company Beijing entered an agreement to provide 111 CNG buses to Lahore Transport Company within the next few months, according to board of investment.

The board of investment is negotiating with various companies for provision of reliable transport facility in the country, said chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla on Thursday while talking to a delegation of bus company Foton China.

The chairman added that the government was encouraging investment in the country’s transport sector.

Around 200 to 300 CNG/LPG buses have already started operating city to city and inter-city within Sialkot following an agreement with the Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Vice President of Foton Group ye Zhaoyou, said that the key to Foton’s success was quality and dedication towards their products, adding Foton was a name associated with commitment and perseverance, known worldwide for their traditional quality and excellence of products.

Foton is a commercial vehicle manufacturer ranked number one in Asia and second globally, according to the company’s website. Foton is investing in the automobile and transport sector of Pakistan, Mass Transit System in major cities and assembly line for cars, light/medium and heavy duty trucks as there is a huge potential market available in Pakistan.

with additional input by APP

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2011.

The Collapse of Urban Transport in Pakistan

Here is the article I just wrote for SSPECTATOR ..... www.sspectator.com ........

It was sometime in the beginning of 1990s when we used to go to school on buses and I still remember that plenty of thoseVolvo buses were on the road. I used to hear from my father about other wonderful services like Omni bus and similar services in theLahore city but the fall of all such basic transport started in the beginning of 1990s.

The last time I sat in a Volvo school bus was sometime in 1990 or 1991. Then suddenly the system started vanishing and the wagon mafia took over slowly and replaced all the buses. It was indeed no less than a pain when you were forced to travel on these wagons and it was like being a chicken in the cage when all the seats were occupied. It was really a miserable time for commuters of this mega city who had no other option except travelling on these terrible means of transportation.

The Shahbaz Sharif government, during 1997-1999, had always claimed of planning a mass transit for the city but it was all just paper work and could never materialize. During this tenure, he made an agreement with the Korean bus company, Daewoo, to bring in better transportation which agreed to deploy more than 300 buses in the first phase and then increasing the number up to one thousand with time. The company’s buses were tax exempted but unfortunately, by the time it was able to bring only 50 buses, the Musharraf led coup ousted the Sharif’s government. Daewoo hardly managed to bring in only 20 more buses however to-date it was indeed the most modern air-conditioned intra-city bus service in the history of city’s transport service. I do remember how excited I was to get the ride of this bus when I saw the first one running on the roads.

The change in government was a blow to the urban transport projects as usually is the fate of all such projects in such a switch, and due to the lack of support and interest by the government of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, these buses started to vanish from the road. Meanwhile, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as a typical Pakistani politician was looking for a project in which he could to get all credit, so he got the idea of Lahore Mass Transit System from Asian Development Bank (ADB). The project feasibility was carried out by M/s MVAASIA (Pvt.) Ltd., and it was expected that work on this great project may start in the mid of 2007. But time passed by, and the delay was attributed to some money and design constraints. All this time, the urban city bus project kept deteriorating and no attention was given to it.

It was during this time, when Karachi’s Circular Railway project was revived with the idea of bringing better transport facilities to the city. Though Karachi had much better transport system as compared to Lahore, which comprised of large and mini buses, but still they were not up to the mark and were also not as per the demand of such a large city.

In 2008, Shahbaz Sharif got another chance by becoming Chief Minister of Punjab for the second time and it was then speculated among the fans of the Lahore Mass Transit Project that it will certainly be shelved as it was labeled as the Pervaiz Elahi’s project. It became apparent that Shahbaz Sharif will not accommodate the Lahore Mass Transit Project (LRMTS) as he initiated the Elevated Expressway Project which goes all along the Ferozpur Road. Most of the fans like me started to campaign against the Elevated Expressway through different means, such as I did it through my blog which is all about Lahore Mass Transit Project. I also came to know that ADB pressurized Shahbaz Sharif not to abandon the LRMTS Project as the Punjab government has already spent millions on the feasibility and the detailed design of the project.

Karachi Circular Railway meanwhile was also in the last stage of its design and JICA(Japan International Cooperation Association) was all ready to build the project with full funding. But the same unfortunate story of political interests brought the same fate of such mega projects in our country to Karachi Circular Railway, the project also went in doldrums. Now looking into the present condition of Karachi, I do not think the project can be materialized any time in the near future.

A recent news flash grabbed my attention once again when I heard that Shahbaz Sharif is negotiating with a Chinese company for the construction of Lahore Mass Transit System. At first, I thought it is again another point scoring move by this Chief Minister, but later came the news of signing of an MOU with a Chinese firm named M/S Norinco International and that the construction is scheduled to begin on August 14, 2011. Indeed, that is some big news to the hopeless commuters of this mega city, however, whether Shahbaz Sharif is really willing to build the mass transit system or is it just another political propaganda for personal glory remains to be seen.