LAHORE, May 4: Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi announced on Wednesday a Rs1 billion Green Programme under which people would be facilitated to initially purchase CNG-fitted four-stroke rickshaws being manufactured by three local companies. The new rickshaws would replace the existing two-stroke and motorcycle-rickshaws in the next three years initially in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala. The government has already banned registration of two-stroke rickshaws and the existing ones would be sent to smaller cities.

Under another incentive, the government was arranging for around 4,000 CNG buses through the same programme and with the help of the federal government. It would also try to tackle the rickety wagons creating air and noise pollution in the province, he said.

Talking to reporters after inspecting the sample rickshaws at his The Mall office, the chief minister said the scheme would be implemented through the Bank of Punjab after June 14.

"We will sign an agreement with the bank which will arrange for the four-stroke rickshaws for the applicants depositing Rs28,000 each. The loan to be given by the bank will be interest-free and the government will pay subsidy from the Rs1 billion fund in the form of bank charges," he said.

The chief minister said the new rickshaws would cost from Rs115,000 to Rs125,000 each and would help ensure pollution-free atmosphere. The present two-stroke rickshaws cost Rs85,000 and the motorcycle-rickshaws around Rs60,000 but the people owning them would get new atmosphere-friendly machines only at Rs28,000, he said.

The CM said like the education sector reforms programme, donor agencies would give funds for the Green Programme, enabling the government to convert all public transport on CNG to ensure healthy and pollution-free life.

The chief minister said it had also been decided to disallow vehicles older than 10 years. The vehicles having less than five years of age would have to undergo a rigorous roadworthiness test to be conducted by state-of-the-art checking stations without causing unnecessary inconvenience to their owners.

Such stations were being established with the help of private sector.

The chief minister said the 400 buses would be cheaper than the existing ones whose manufacturers had not as yet started producing CNG buses despite repeated requests. With the arrival of the cheaper CNG buses, they would also start following suit, he said.

Mr Elahi said the government would handle the issue of old wagons while keeping in view the economic interest of their owners.

Replying to questions, he said the government had already issued a warning to the manufactures of two-stroke rickshaws. No such rickshaw and motorcycle-rickshaw would be allowed in the big cities after three years, he said.

He said the owners of the existing two-stroke rickshaws and motorcycle-rickshaws should sell them to buy the new four-stroke machines which would be allowed to be used in smaller cities and towns.

The chief minister said the scheme of the four-stroke rickshaws through the Bank of Punjab would be launched from June 15 after allocating Rs1 billion in the next year’s budget.

He said fares of rickshaws would be rationalized to facilitate people being charged at will by drivers.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/05/nat25.htm