The Punjab Mass-Transit Authority’s (PMA) deficit has reached Rs375 million due to the closure of the metro bus service for 105 days while officials believe that a single-day shutdown of metro bus causes a loss of Rs3.6 million, Pakistan Today reported.
According to reports, while no decision has been taken to restore the service by the government so far, the Punjab government had earlier also cut subsidy of PMA by Rs1 billion and the fourth quarter’s funds were not fully released in the last fiscal year (2019-2020).
“Due to non-issuance of funds, there have been problems in payment to contractors,” reports quoted officials as saying.
They lamented that the government’s policies were beyond understanding as it had allowed intra-city and inter-city transport to operate but had not yet restored the metro bus service since after the first coronavirus lockdown.
“An average of 130,000 commuters were benefiting from the metro bus service daily. The authority is currently facing the worst financial crisis. No strategy has been formulated to restore the financial damages nor has it been decided how the foreign company which is operating the metro bus will be supported.”
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the Punjab government had decided to close Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan metro bus service in March. However, local transporters were later allowed to operate inter and intra-bus service while following certain guidelines.
The report also quoted sources in the Punjab government as claiming that the metro bus service was a white elephant. “The service had been subsidised by the previous government but it is very difficult for the present government to subsidise the bus service further.”
PMA General Manager (Operations) Uzair Shah said the decision to reactivate the bus service would be taken by the Punjab government whereas no order had so far come from the government. “The authority is facing problems due to non-receipt of subsidy,” he added while also requesting the government to release funds.
