Govt to Procure More Metro Buses for Islamabad’s New Route

The government is planning to procure more buses for the Peshawar Morr-to-Islamabad Airport route of the Metro Bus Service in a bid to alleviate the issues of commuters in the twin cities.

It will soon place an order for 30 more buses for this route, according to a media report.

The latest phase of the Metro Bus Service project was given to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) by the National Highway Authority (NHA) as per the instructions of the federal government, which has earmarked a fund of Rs. 300 million for the project.

CDA has invited financial bids from various companies to facilitate the procurement of the buses. One of the companies — Higher Bus Company Limited — had placed the lowest bid and received an order worth Rs. 728 million for the buses.

Other bidders for the order of the buses were Foton, Autopark, and Master Motor Corporation. Foton and Autopark had placed bids of Rs. 33 million per bus, and the latter had placed a bid of Rs. 29 million per bus. Higher Bus Company Ltd. had placed the lowest bid of Rs. 24.2 million per bus and acquired the order for 30 buses.

A spokesperson for CDA told the media that the buses will be procured within the next four months. He added that 24 buses will be allocated to traverse between Peshawar Morr and the M5 GT Road Bus Stop, while six of the remaining buses (that have additional luggage space) will commute between M5 GT Road and the New Islamabad Airport.Advertisement

The project was initially scheduled to be completed in 2018 but operational hiccups had hindered it. The civil work for the project is reportedly complete, and sources say that it will be made operational within the next few months.