Delhi Metro: Why not than LRMTS or KCR

Delhi Metro running successfully ......... Than why not Karachi Circular Railways or Lahore Mass Transit System

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http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2010/08/16/qmb.future.city.delhi.metro.cnn

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..............

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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.

Pakistan, Chinese Firm Sign Deal for Procurement of 202 Passenger Coaches

At last Railways took the right decision by purchasing coaches from China ................. at least not from India .................. Railways should now buy only from China so not to make problems for itself when later it comes to the problem of maintenance

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ISLAMABAD (August 05 2010): Pakistan has signed a contract agreement amounting to 134.45 million dollar for procurement of 202 passenger coaches with a Chinese Firm China Machinery Import and Export Corporation. Railways Minister Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour on Wednesday told the Senate in written reply to a question that out of 202 passengers coaches.

52 would be received in Completely Built Units (CBU) whereas the remaining 150 would be CKD and manufactured at Carriage Factory, Islamabad. He said that the project for rehabilitation of 400 passenger coaches, at a total cost of Rs 3434 million, is in progress at Carriage Factory, Islamabad. He said that 241 coaches have been rehabilitated and put in service up to June 2010.

He said that total of Rs 1,032.62 million has been allocated during current financial year for renovation/maintenance of the Railway stations. In another reply, the Minister said that a contract agreement for procurement/manufacture of 75 Diesel/Electric Locomotives has been signed between the Railway Administration and Dongfang Electric Corporation China.

He said that as many as 25 out of 75 locomotives would be procured in shape of Completely Built Units (CBU) whereas the remaining 50 would be manufactured in Pakistan Locomotive Factory, Risalpur. He said that PC-1 for 150 Diesel Electric Locomotives has been recommended by The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) approval for the replacement of old age locomotives.

Present Condition of Lahore Urban Transport: Ironic

LAHORE, Aug 2: Waiting for insufficient and poorly-maintained buses for hours, running in the provincial capital, has become a routine matter for common citizens. Lahorites problems have been compounded by the suspension of wagon operation on most of the routes “I have been waiting the bus for almost an hour. It seems going on foot instead

of waiting for the bus is a better option,” says Muhammad Ashfaq, a factory employee, lamented while standing at a bus stop on Ferozepur Road..

“Who will take the pain to resolve the problems we are facing on roads? We are living in a country where the state provides facilities only to the wealthy people by depriving the common citizens who actually pay taxes which are supposed to be spent for their welfare and development purposes,” he says.

He said most of the commuters couldn’t afford to hire taxi or rickshaw to reach their destinations, but mismanagement on the part of departments concerned and a meager number of buses on city routes were adversely affecting their routine business. “The Punjab government has already closed a number of wagons on many routes, causing an acute shortage of public transport in the city.

“Private bus operators don’t have the required number of vehicles which only lead to overcrowding. While the poorly-maintained buses need immediate repair and maintenance as commuters have to face inconvenience when such vehicles break down in the middle of the journey,” he said.

Safdar Jamil, serving in a government department, criticized the role of the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) formed under the chief minister’s initiative to provide transport facilities to Lahorites.

“The LTC has done nothing to provide a trouble-free transport facility to the general public’, he said.

LTC’s enforcement general manager Fawad Qureshi said the company had planned to induct 2,000 new buses within two years.

“The LTC offers capital subsidy to potential bus operators for inducting new buses according to the approved specification. At the same time, the LTC will provide operational subsidy to existing and new bus operators based on a transparent system of the operational subsidy disbursal.

The draft for tendering modalities in the wake of inducting 2,000 new buses is in the final stages, he said.

Mr Qureshi admitted that the people were facing problems owing to an acute shortage of buses on all routes. He said only 400 buses, most of them in bad condition, were running in the metropolis for a population of nearly nine million.

Besides these buses, he said about 80,000 rickshaws and 6,000 wagons were operating in the city.

“Since its inception in February this year, the LTC has tried hard to involve all stakeholders for increasing the number of buses on all routes, but bus owners are not willing to bring more vehicles on roads because of financial crunch.

They (bus operators) are already facing financial hardships to get their 400 buses repaired,” he claimed.

He said bus operators could stop the service if the LTC tried to pile pressure on them to introduce more buses on different routes.

Muhammad Rashid, the general manager of a private bus company, termed the situation terrible not only for passengers but also for bus operators.

He said about 900 buses were in operation in Lahore two years back, but their number had gradually decreased to nearly 400 because of perpetual increase in fuel prices.

“We have time and again asked the LTC and the transport department to provide subsidy for getting repaired the existing fleet of buses, but to no avail,” he said.

He said the LTC was providing only 20 per cent subsidy to bus operators willing to run CNG buses in the provincial capital.

He suggested conducting a fresh survey for operating efficient and affordable transport system in Lahore.LTC chairman and former federal interior secretary Tasneem Noorani said the company would get more than 500 buses within three to four weeks.

“Our objective is to regulate the transport system and make it a viable and sustainable. We will adopt measures to provide qualitative and cheap transport facilities to Lahorites as per the vision and ini tiative of the Punjab chief minister.

“We will not run the buses on their own, but we will involve all transport stakeholders and even new comers to induct new buses under the banner and regulations of the LTC”.

He said the LTC wanted to award subsidy to the existing bus operators, but they would have to show their capacity to fulfill demands and expectations of the public as well as the LTC. — KHALID HASNAIN

Metropolitan Line Air-Conditioned Tube trains Launched

The first air-conditioned Tube train has gone into service on the London Underground.

The train, which will be used on the Metropolitan Line, is the first of a 191-strong fleet of new trains.

Transport for London (TfL) plans to roll the air-conditioned trains out across 40% of the network by 2015.

The train set off from north London's Wembley Park station at about 1030 BST on Monday. London Mayor Boris Johnson was due to attend the launch.

The introduction of the new trains to the Metropolitan Line is due to be completed by the end of 2011.

Air-conditioned trains will be introduced to the Circle Line, the Hammersmith & City Line, and finally the District Line, by 2015.

Budget cut

The total cost of the new trains will be £1.5bn, TfL said.

The budget to cool Tube carriages on the London Underground was slashed by £10m in July as part of TfL cutbacks.

However, TfL said the introduction of new trains would not be affected by this budget cut.

The mayor's office said cooling the network was still a priority but it had to ensure it was getting value for money as part of the network upgrade.

A heat map that monitored the London Underground on 28 July 2008 - one of the hottest days of the year - found the Central Line was the hottest, with temperatures of up to 32C (90F).

The Metropolitan Line recorded temperatures of up to 27C (81F).

The Jubilee Line was significantly cooler with most stations recording temperatures of 25C (77F).

Meeting for Financing 500 CNG Buses Project on August 3

Hoping for some positive developments from this meeting ............... let's see how long more to see these buses on the streets of Karachi .............
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KARACHI (August 01 2010): The Ministry of Environment is going to hold a meeting on Tuesday, August 3, with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other banks to finalise funding for the 500 CNG-powered buses for Karachi. The meeting here would also be attended by representatives of Sindh government, Karachi City District Government (CDGK) and CNG bus operators.

The meeting would discuss criteria of funding to the already delayed project and, if all issues are settled, the 500 environment-friendly buses would ply on the city's road during this month. Beside the funding issue of the project all other arrangements have already been finalised, and the Minister of Environment, Hameedullah Jaan Afridi, is much interested to start the project in the metropolis, sources said.

All studies and selection of CNG bus operators have also been completed by Karachi Mass Transit Cell (KMTC) of CDGK and the bus supply and manufacturing firms were also ready to run the buses soon after the resolution of the funding issue. Earlier, local and international commercial banks and development financial institutions (DFIs), led by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), had shown interest in providing loans to the pre-qualified manufacturers and suppliers of CNG buses.

Though the ground working for launching of the CNG buses project have been completed, it was needed to have the private public support to run these buses on at least 40 routes of the city. Sources said that the selected and qualified banks, led by SBP, in co-operation and co-ordination of Enercon, would provide 80 percent loans for the project.

The government would also provide subsidy of at least Rs 0.7million for each bus, while the private bus suppliers would facilitate the 20 percent equity, they added. According to the project, initially 500 CNG powered buses were to be run on the city routes and this number would be increased to 4000 during the next five years.

For the successful launching of the project, the co-ordination and help of other institutions, like Hydro-Carbon Development Institute of Pakistan (HDIP), Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF) and Enercon were also sought. At least 14 private companies, including Midway Consortium, a Punjab-based CNG dedicated bus supplier which has good experience in operating such buses in Lahore and other cities of Punjab, had earlier shown interest to operate its buses in Karachi.

CDGK May Scrap Plan to Buy more CNG Buses

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.