CDA to hire buses from NRTC to ply on 13 metro routes
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has reversed its decision to hire buses from private companies for 13 new routes instead of hiring buses from the National Radio and Telecommunications Corporation (NRTC).
In this regard, CDA Chairman Noorul Amin Mengal posted on Twitter, Agreement with NRTC for plying the new 200 electric buses on 13 routes in Islamabad is in the final stages. After the agreement, NRTC is bound to start services within 90 days.
According to sources, both parties will sign an agreement?soon. After?the bid cancellation, the CDA decided to call bids again. They added that when the matter was brought to the attention of the incumbent chairman, he advised the civic agency’s transportation wing to investigate the possibility of obtaining buses from the government-owned NRTC.
Following a series of meetings between both organizations, NRTC agreed to operate over 150 buses on 13 routes. Soon we will sign an agreement in this regard and the homework is almost complete, a CDA official said.
Last year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the CDA to launch new bus services on 13 routes. Previously, the premier had also dedicated three metro bus lines: The Orange Line, Green Line, and Blue Line. The CDA owns the buses that run on the three routes.
However, under the new agreement for plying buses on 13 routes, the CDA decided that rather than procuring buses, it would hire the services of a private bus company (now NRTC) to ply 150 buses. The company would be paid for each kilometre travelled.
Sources said that the 13 routes include the one from
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Police Foundation/Orange Line Station to Red Line Faiz Ahmed Faiz Station in I-8
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Allama Iqbal Station to Red Line Potohar Station
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Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) to Secretariat
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