World Bank’s $150m EV plan for Islamabad may take year

Islamabad: Islamabad may have to wait nearly a year before electric buses are actually purchased under a proposed World Bank-backed project, as the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency said the plan will first go through a three to four month study followed by a procurement process expected to take another eight to 10 months.

The disclosure came during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Coordination chaired by Munaza Hassan. The committee was told that transport is a major source of Islamabad’s air pollution, with its contribution estimated at between 53 percent and 70 percent.

Pak EPA Director General Syed Abrar Hussain said the agency had held eight meetings with the World Bank during the last three months to seek a package of about $150 million for Islamabad. The money is proposed to help replace petrol and diesel buses used by educational institutions with electric buses.

He said buses used by older institutions, including Quaid-e-Azam University and the International Islamic University, were among the major sources of transport pollution in the capital. The first priority would be to shift these buses from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles.

The official also said the agency was working with the Capital Development Authority to bring electric buses into Islamabad’s public transport system.

The plan has two proposed sources of money. One is the $150 million World Bank package, while the second is the Clean Environment Fund, which has about Rs2.5 billion.

The EPA official said a summary had already been sent to the Prime Minister to activate the Board of Directors of the Clean Environment Fund. Once the board is approved, the EPA plans to sign an agreement with the CDA and start work on buying electric buses.

The committee chairperson, however, pressed the official for exact dates, questioning why the agency was repeatedly talking about what it would do in the future instead of saying when the buses would actually arrive.

The EPA official said the Clean Environment Fund plan could move forward after the board is activated, which officials hope will happen by the end of the month. He said the board is required before decisions can be taken on the fund.

For the World Bank project, he said the bank would take three to four months to complete a diagnostic study. After that, technical work would be done for preparation of the project document, while procurement of buses could take another eight to 10 months.

The committee chairperson also questioned the repeated reliance on the Punjab model, pointing out that Islamabad was being asked to follow a project already supported by the World Bank in Punjab.

The EPA official said Punjab had received a $300 million World Bank package that included electric buses and air monitoring stations and that Islamabad was seeking a smaller package suited to its needs.