Islamabad:Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Law and Justice, Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar on Friday informed the Upper House of the Parliament that 30 electric-buses of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) were safely docked at the Convention Centre declared as its initial terminal and depot with proper charging and maintenance infrastructure in place.
Responding to the question of Senator Fawzia Arshad on the reasons behind the CDA’s failure to establish depots for public transport buses to be received from China in upcoming months and any precautionary measures taken to ensure protection of the vehicles, the minister informed that it was the first batch of the buses received from China and two more batches were in the offing.
Senator Tarar informed that the Chinese company had installed charging stations with a capacity of charging 12 buses at a time within 3 hours which was sufficient to manage the entire fleet. He informed that the soft launch was today, and all measures were in place whereas the members of the House were welcomed to travel in the newly inducted e-buses.
He added that a charging facility at Bus Depot in Sector H-9 was also being developed to cater for the 2nd batch of 70 electric-buses and would be made operational after one month of mandatory driver’s training.
“The bus depots at Taramri, I-9/H-9 and Zero Point were tendered twice, but unfortunately, the bids received were on a significantly higher than estimated cost and were therefore cancelled.
These depots will be tendered again shortly and are expected to be completed within a period of five months,” Senator Tarar said. Responding to the supplementary query of Senator Humayun Mohmand, he said the transport was a devolved subject and the federal government could only operate E-buses not other than Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
He added that the federal government’s policy was to shift over renewable energy and friendly policies for solar panels and EVs were introduced. “The import of luxury vehicles beyond 2,500cc have been capped so that relaxation should be given at the basic level to the common masses and the government would encourage small users to opt for EVs.
The future is of EVs and e-buses have been given relaxation in the policy and being promoted in the country as they are environment friendly and it will help save fuel and foreign exchange,” he added.
Earlier, Senator Danesh Kumar asked the minister to brief over the safety measures taken to mitigate risks of blasts or accidents at the facility. Senator Humayun Mohmand termed the e-buses induction into mass transit fleet as a positive development to shift over e-buses and focusing public transport. He inquired the minister to explain on any future prospects of nationwide rollout of e-buses across the country.