PESHAWAR: A private transport company that operates the bus rapid transit (BRT) service in northwestern Pakistan’s Peshawar city this week threatened to shut operations over the government’s failure to pay its dues that it says have exceeded Rs600 million.
Daewoo Pakistan, which administers the affairs of 244 BRT buses in Peshawar which cater to over 300,000 passengers on a daily basis, wrote a letter to the caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on July 13 to highlight the issue.
“We have raised our grave concerns regarding the release of outstanding payments amounting to PKR 603 million,” read the letter by Daewoo Pakistan, a copy of which was seen by Arab News. “We have not received 90 percent payments against the invoices for the months of May, and June 2023. Yet again, we are facing the situation as last month.”
Daewoo said such difficult circumstances were compelling the company to head toward “imminent closure” of its operations as it was unable to buy resources such as diesel, lubricants, and parts, and even disburse employees’ wages.
“We urgently request your immediate attention to release the overdue amount of PKR 603 million within this week,” Daewoo Pakistan said, adding that failure to do so may “result in the regrettable suspension of our operations, causing significant inconvenience to the public and impacting the overall transportation system.”
“We don’t know the exact reasons why the government is not releasing the funds on time, but this also happened last month,” a source who works for the BRT system told Arab News on condition of anonymity.
It added that some pending funds were released by the government after the issue was highlighted by the media last month.
“BRT services are run by five private contractors, including Daewoo Pakistan, and if the funds to private companies are not paid on time, it is imminent that they would stop operations,” they said.
Daewoo Pakistan had also written a letter on May 23, a copy of which was seen by Arab News, to the caretaker KP government. In the letter, Daewoo Pakistan demanded the release of Rs450 million against the invoices for the months of February, March, and April 2023.
“We are looking into the matter and the payment will be released soon,” Shahid Khan Khattak. caretaker transport minister KP told Arab News. “The funds are pending at the finance department and will take some time.”
Khattak said the government did not know why the BRT company was threatening to shut down its operations.
He acknowledged that other BRT funds that the government had to pay are pending, some of which were released in June, he added. Khattak said this was acknowledged by the BRT with an appreciation letter sent to the government.
