Thursday, September 18, 2008
By Atif Nadeem

LAHORE

There is a dire need of plying at least 1,500 CNG buses on the city routes to make the environment pollution free as diesel-fuelled buses have been creating serious environment concerns for a long time in the provincial metropolis.

While talking to The News, official sources in the Transport department said that the government was devising a strategy to convert all the diesel-run buses to CNG-run ones, and for that purpose the government had already opened bid and called the transport owners to participate in the project as they would be given 25 per cent subsidy on the purchase of the CNG buses.

The sources said that the provincial government would carry out the project in the whole of Punjab and almost 3,000 CNG buses would be brought on the major city routes in this regard.

They said that the government would not succumb to the pressure of the transport owners for any further increase in the fares of the public transport vehicles. They said that the government had already increased fares twice in the same year and by increasing the fares again, the government would not add to the troubles of the people.

Over the issue of the purchase of the CNG buses by the transport owners, he said that the provincial government would give 25 per cent subsidy to the transport owners and the rest of the amount would be paid by them and the provincial government would not make any other financial arrangements for the transport owners.

thenews.com.pk