LAHORE, Jan 22: The Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) will extend loans to the transporters for converting their buses from diesel to CNG fuel to help combat the rising pollution in major urban centres of the province.
“A scheme in this regard will be announced shortly,” Punjab Industries Minister Ajmal Cheema told a news conference here on Monday.
PSIC managing director Syed Mohammad Ali Gardezi was also present on the occasion.
The conversion of each bus would cost Rs500,000, Cheema said and added: “This amount will be paid back by the transporters in installments.”
He said PSIC was also providing loans worth Rs300 million for the purchase of CNG rickshaws under Chief Minister’s Green Punjab scheme.
He said out of 70,000 rickshaws plying on the city roads, only 1,000 were CNG-fuelled.
Ajmal Cheema said the Punjab government had offered incentives to all the automobile manufacturing companies for the production of CNG rickshaws. “I hope these companies will respond positively,” he said.
Talking about disbursement of loans by PSIC, he said the corporation had provided the facility to about 7,000 industrial units. “The (loan) recovery rate is 89 per cent, and it is going to increase in future,” he added.
He said an amount of Rs1 billion had been arranged for disbursement among industrial units.
Cheema said PSIC was also disbursing micro-credit among the artisans and cottage industry owners