The 133 buses powered by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) buses promised by the Federal Government are to be deployed this month, Petroleum Resources Minister, Mr. Timipre Sylva said, on Sunday.
The renewed promise came on the heels of questions about the government’s pledge to supply the buses to mitigate the harsh effects of the petrol price hike, in September.
There were uproars as the Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC) announced a new ex-depot price of N151.56 per litre and marketers increased their pump prices to between N168 to N160 per litre from the August N145 to N150 per litre pump prices.
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The gas-fueled buses were one of the offers that the government tabled to the aggrieved Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to shelve its planned industrial action on September 28.
Sylva said the government had underestimated the time of taking delivery of the buses.
According to his Special Adviser, Mallam Garba-Muhammad, who spoke with The Nation on phone, the promise of delivering the buses is still intact.
He, however, explained that being a new technology, the logistic of the gas-fueled buses takes a longer time than expected, unlike the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) that the country is used to its functionality.
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A Labour chieftain, who pleaded for anonymity said the NLC was to take delivery of the mass transit buses more than a month after the government’s promise.
It was part of the “general intervention” put forward at the meeting by government to cushion the impacts of the downstream sector deregulation and tariffs adjustment in the power sector, the unionist said, expressing shock at the latest increase in the pump price of petrol.
Speaking on the mass transit buses, the source said: “Those buses are supposed to mitigate the effect of the previous petrol increase. The buses have not been rolled out. We have not seen any buses. If there are buses it would be commissioned, at least we will see it.”
