ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday formally announced to rename the metro bus service as the Pakistan Metro Bus Service.

It may be noted that at the launch of the bus service at the Convention Centre three days ago, the chief minister had expressed his desire to rename the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus service.

“This project belongs to the 180 million people of the country as most of the people living in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have come from different parts of the country,” the chief minister said after visiting the metro track on Sunday.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervaiz Rashid, assembly members, project director Zahid Saeed and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif says renaming of the bus service will promote national solidarity and unity

The chief minister said the Pakistan metro bus service was the most modern with regard to the provision of transport facilities to the citizens, adding more than 0.1 million people were benefiting from the service daily. He said the construction companies worked speedily on the project and they would be encouraged in the future. He said an orange line metro train project has been envisaged for Lahore on which the initial work has been started.

The chief minister said he had also offered an all-out cooperation to his KP counterpart Pervaiz Khattak for launching a metro bus project in Peshawar because the progress of all the four provinces was essential for the collective national development.

He said the renaming of the metro bus service would promote national solidarity, brotherhood and unity. The Pakistan metro bus service has been started with the aim of providing international standard transport facilities to the citizens. He said separate seats had been reserved for women in the metro buses and every bus would reach a station after every two minutes.

In reply to a question, the chief minister said new green buses would soon start operations on the feeder route of the metro bus service. He said the system of security and cleanliness on the metro bus route had been outsourced and the metro bus authority had selected the companies for this purpose in a transparent manner. A third-party audit of the sanitation and security arrangements would be conducted and under the agreement the company failing to perform its responsibility would have to pay a fine.

To a question, the chief minister said it was illogical to think what would happen to the metro bus service if there was an earthquake.

Answering another question, Shahbaz Sharif said 68 buses were operating on the metro route and their number can be increased if there was a need. He said the security of the commuters was the responsibility of the government and if anyone tried to trespass into the metro bus track they should be stopped at any cost.

However, he said, security measures were being improved and metal detectors were used for checking of the commuters. The installation of walk-through gates and scanners can also be considered. He said problems coming to the notice of the authorities concerned were being resolved.

Mr Sharif said there was no Centaurus bus station on the metro route and the metro station near Pims was known as the Pims station. He said public awareness campaign had been started with regard to the travel on the metro buses.

Regarding the subsidy for the service, Mr Sharif said if any government in future tried to withdraw the subsidy, they would bring its own downfall as it was a public welfare project.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2015

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