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CNG buses disappear in a haze
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, April 20: A consortium which launched a CNG bus service between the twin cities in February with 10 buses has folded up the service in protest.
Dawn learnt on Sunday that the Midway Consortium has informed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) that it was no more interested in operating the service.
CDA sources said the owner of the consortium was interested in setting up his own high-pressure gas stations for his promised 300-bus fleet and quit when the CDA refused.
It is said the consortium was pressed into launching the service in haste because the CDA bosses wanted to take credit for introducing CNG buses before a new elected government took power.
With the bus service closing before really taking off, the CDA bosses may lose face and the private consortium the profits it would have looking for on its Rs2 billion investment.
However the real losers will be tens of thousands low-income people who have to commute between Islamabad and Rawalpindi daily and were looking forward to a good bus service.
A senior CDA official said if the Midway Consortium had been allowed to establish its own CNG stations, it would have concentrated less on running the bus service and more on running the filling stations.
However, the owner of the consortium, Shaikh Mureed Hussain, said his bus service required special gas stations as the CNG buses could not be filled at ordinary, low-pressure gas stations.
I had told CDA that I will suspend the bus service if four or five big CNG stations were not established in the capital city, he said.
It takes 20 minutes to refill a bus at high-pressure CNG station and four hours at ordinary stations, according to him.
His present 10-bus fleet depended on a single high pressure CNG station located near Pir Vadhai. That would be insufficient for his planned 300-bus fleet and so the CDA had promised to allow him construct a terminal for the Midway Consortium in Sector I-11. But the CDA backed out on the promise, he said.
The bus service was launched by the consortium and the CDA jointly on February 11 without entering into a formal agreement and providing necessary infrastructure.
According to the verbal understanding the firm was to start the service with 50 buses, to be increased to 300 in three years.
CNG buses disappear in a haze -DAWN - National; April 21, 2008
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, April 20: A consortium which launched a CNG bus service between the twin cities in February with 10 buses has folded up the service in protest.
Dawn learnt on Sunday that the Midway Consortium has informed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) that it was no more interested in operating the service.
CDA sources said the owner of the consortium was interested in setting up his own high-pressure gas stations for his promised 300-bus fleet and quit when the CDA refused.
It is said the consortium was pressed into launching the service in haste because the CDA bosses wanted to take credit for introducing CNG buses before a new elected government took power.
With the bus service closing before really taking off, the CDA bosses may lose face and the private consortium the profits it would have looking for on its Rs2 billion investment.
However the real losers will be tens of thousands low-income people who have to commute between Islamabad and Rawalpindi daily and were looking forward to a good bus service.
A senior CDA official said if the Midway Consortium had been allowed to establish its own CNG stations, it would have concentrated less on running the bus service and more on running the filling stations.
However, the owner of the consortium, Shaikh Mureed Hussain, said his bus service required special gas stations as the CNG buses could not be filled at ordinary, low-pressure gas stations.
I had told CDA that I will suspend the bus service if four or five big CNG stations were not established in the capital city, he said.
It takes 20 minutes to refill a bus at high-pressure CNG station and four hours at ordinary stations, according to him.
His present 10-bus fleet depended on a single high pressure CNG station located near Pir Vadhai. That would be insufficient for his planned 300-bus fleet and so the CDA had promised to allow him construct a terminal for the Midway Consortium in Sector I-11. But the CDA backed out on the promise, he said.
The bus service was launched by the consortium and the CDA jointly on February 11 without entering into a formal agreement and providing necessary infrastructure.
According to the verbal understanding the firm was to start the service with 50 buses, to be increased to 300 in three years.
CNG buses disappear in a haze -DAWN - National; April 21, 2008
