Centre denies Balochistan's request to provide 100 green buses

The federal government has rejected the caretaker government’s plan for Balochistan to provide them with 100 green buses for Quetta city to improve travelling facilities for the people of the provincial capital.

Sources said the provincial government had proposed a plan to the federal government for providing 100 green buses to Quetta and asked Islamabad to include the plan in budget 2024. 

It added that the concerned authority rejected the plan and did not add it to the next financial year’s budget.

Under the public-private partnership, only 18 buses were running in the province from Balochistan University to Baleli, charging Rs40 for each passenger.

It is pertinent to mention here that Balochistan is the only province of the country that has no mass transit transport facility for travellers. The citizens were using second-hand or private local buses on different routes, charging fares more than green buses.

Apart from this, Anwarul Haq Kakar, who himself is from Balochistan, had promised during his tenure as caretaker prime minister to bring 100 green buses into the province, but the promise was not fulfilled. 

Chief Minister Balochistan Sarfraz Bugti said that the mass transit buses in Quetta were a priority of his government.

“Even if we don’t get 100 buses, we will try to get as many as possible from the federal government,” he said.