Sindh cabinet okays 250 new hybrid electric buses for Karachi, Hyderabad

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday presided over a seven-hour long cabinet meeting and discussed over 23 agenda items.

The agendas discussed in the meeting include taking the census issue to the parliament, procurement of 250 diesel hybrid electric buses, devolution of Sindh Solid Management to the divisional level, withdrawal of the condition of producing Form VII to sell wheat

The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, advisors, chief secretary Mumtaz Shah and other concerned secretaries.

250 buses

Minister Transport and Mass Transit Awais Qadir Shah briefed the cabinet that his department would procure 250 Diesel Hybrid Electric Buses under the Sindh Intra-District People Bus Service project.

He told the cabinet that these buses would operate in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas and Shaheed Benazirabad.

The Mass Transit department has hired a professional consultant and the project would cost Rs8 billion, the minister told the meeting.

The cabinet approved the proposal and gave go-ahead to the Transport department to procure the buses. The chief minister said that he would provide necessary funds to the department for the purpose and termed it “good news for the people of six districts.”

Census

The chief minister told the cabinet that he had attended the CCI meeting through video link on Monday in which Census-2017 was approved despite his dissenting vote. He said that he had told the prime minister that all the four provinces have serious reservations against the census result, therefore it should be conducted anew.

“The CCI since its inception has been taking consensus decisions, but this was the first decision which has been taken with a vote dissent,” he told the cabinet and said that in such a situation he has to take up the matter in the parliament.

The provincial cabinet approved to take up the matter of the census in the parliament.

SSWMB

Minister for Local Government Nasir Shah presented a draft Sindh Solid Waste Management Act-2021 which envisaged creation of Solid Waste Management Board at each Divisional headquarter of the province.

Each board would be headed by a concerned commissioner of the division with the mayor of Metropolitan corporation and metropolitan as members of the board.

The cabinet approved the proposal and referred the matter to the Sindh Assembly.