ISLAMABAD: At last, electric buses are about to take to the city’s roads. Ten will arrive on Tuesday, the 24th, and 20 more will follow the following day.
“Two days from now, on Tuesday and Wednesday, a fleet of thirty buses will arrive in Islamabad,” a CDA officer stated. These thirty buses, he continued, will run on two routes out of the Convention Center. The first route will travel G-10, G-9, and G-8 from G-11 Nust station to Pims, and the second route will go G-7, G-6, G-6, National Library, Bari Imam, and Quaid-i-Azam University from Pims.
The service, which will launch in a few days, will run every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. In addition, another 70 buses will arrive in Karachi in a few days and be sent to Islamabad once customs clearance is completed. Later, the final fleet of sixty buses will arrive in Islamabad.
“On Tuesday, electric buses will arrive in Islamabad. According to a news statement sent on Monday, this was discussed at a meeting at CDA headquarters that was presided over by CDA Chairman Muhammad Ali Randhawa.
According to an official, buses would travel on two new routes from G-11 Nust station to Pims and from Pims to Quaid-i-Azam University.
According to the CDA chairman, a plan would be developed to provide subsidies to worthy groups in society, such as students and people with disabilities.
To run the thirty buses, the CDA has erected a makeshift depot inside the Convention Center with six electric chargers. But when the civic organization receives more buses—there aren’t any depots or chargers for them—it will be in a crisis of sorts. Since December 2023, the CDA has been putting out bids for the construction of two depots; however, the contract has not yet been given out.
According to sources, the National Logistic Cell placed the lowest bid when the technical and financial bids were opened in February. The civic agency has not yet awarded the contract, though, because its proposal was excessively higher than the projected price. Additionally, there’s a chance the local government will issue a new tender.
Zero Point, I-9, and Tramri were the three locations for the depots that were slated for development last year. But none of them have had any work done on them yet. According to an official, “proper inquiry is warranted given the delay in establishing the depots.”
National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC), a contractor hired by the CDA, has purchased 160 buses. NRTC will run the buses. It would get between Rs306 and Rs331 per kilometre from the CDA.
In his former role as prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif had instructed the CDA to introduce new bus services on 13 routes. Because of his persistent efforts to get the CDA to launch the service, the civic organization hired the NRTC to help them purchase buses from a foreign company that produces them in China.
Additionally, he had launched the Orange Line, Green Line, and Blue Line metro bus services. The buses operating on the three lines are owned by the CDA, and thousands of passengers benefit greatly from them every day.
There has been no attempt to start a bus service in Islamabad since the Government Transport Service (GTS) closed. However, the Rawalpindi–Islamabad metro service was launched during the previous PML–N administration (2013–18), and Orange, Green, and Blue Lines followed.
When the new buses begin running on the 13 new routes, virtually every section of Islamabad, including its rural and urban districts, will be connected, according to officials.
