KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information and Transport Sharjeel Memon on Sunday Imran Khan’s government did nothing while in power and the resignations claim is merely a ruse to mislead the general public.
“If Imran really wants resignations, then he should ask President Arif Alvi to be the first to step down.”
Sindh Minister for Information and Transport Sharjeel Memon was talking to media during a visit to Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line site in Karachi as the work on the project is going on at a brisk pace.
Calling PTI’s Pindi rally a corner meeting, Sharjeel said that Imran Khan arrived in Rawalpindi to get the election date and left after announcing resignations.
He also claimed that Pervaiz Elahi was a sensible man and he will never want to give up his power on Imran Khan’s whim.
Electric taxi service in Karachi soon
The Sindh Minister announced that very soon a modern, affordable and environment-friendly electric taxi service will be launched in Karachi which will be extended to other major cities of the province. He said that negotiations were underway for the electric taxi service project and the Sindh government was working seriously to finalize it soon.
He said: “The existing online taxi services in city are charging very high fares. Sindh government is endeavouring to provide affordable taxi service to the citizens.”
Mr Memon said that the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party had directed to expedite pace of work on all the ongoing public transport projects in Karachi so as to address the long-standing transport issue of the city.
He added that public transport projects with investment of billions of rupees had been launched in the city. Sindh Mass Transit Authority is working day and night to increase the number of buses in the city and improve the transport infrastructure, he added.
The minister said that the work on 22km BRT Red Line is in process at rapid pace. It starts from Malir Halt and passes through University Road before its integration with green line at Numaish Chowrangi.
He said that BRT Red Line launched with the assistance of ADB and it is Pakistan’s first project, which will be run on biogas. In this regard, the the construction of Pakistan’s first biogas plant will be started soon. He said that Sindh had the honor of having started the first electric bus service in Pakistan in the field of public transport and now the work on BRT red line running on eco-friendly biogas is in progress.
He said that Sindh Government Transport Department had started Orange Line and People’s Bus Service. Soon electric bus service will also starts its formal operations in the city.
The transport minister said that the work on the BRT Yellow Line project with the support of the World Bank is in the final stages, the construction of which will also commence soon. He said that all major cities of the world had modern public transport system including BRT service.
The minister added that Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was a very old project and now with the efforts of the Sindh CM, the project was included in the CPEC projects.
In response to a question, he said that all federal institutions, including the Malir Cantonment Board, had taken ownership of the BRT Red Line project and were extending full support in the construction of project.
