Progressing smoothly: President told Green Line BRT will be completed by mid-2018

Meeting held to discuss progress of the project, transport issues in the city

KARACHI: The ambitious Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is likely to be delayed by six months in view of work on its extended loops.

A project review meeting presided over by President Mamnoon Hussain on Saturday was informed

that the original cost of the project was Rs16 billion, but this has now been increased to Rs24 billion after the project was extended from Guru Mandir to Tower with its additional loop, which will transport commuters to MA Jinnah Road via II Chundrigar Road, Shaheen Complex, Abdullah Haroon Road and Preedy Street. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, transport minister Nasir Shah, transport secretary Taha Farooqui and principal secretary to the Sindh governor Saleh Farooqui were among those who attended the meeting.

“The total length of this project is 28 kilometres and the first phase, starting from Surjani Town to Guru Mandir, comprises of 18km,” said the officials of the Karachi Infrastructure Company Limited while briefing the meeting’s participants. There will be 22 stations along the route, with an average distance of 800 metres between each station. They added that out of 18km, 11.5km will be elevated road.

“We are building a state-of-the-art interchange near the Board Office, which will be connected to the Orange Line and other traffic [routes]. This interchange will be open by February next year,” claimed Bilal Memon, chief financial officer of the Karachi Infrastructure Company Limited. He added that there were no hurdles in this project and work was proceeding smoothly.

Heritage sites

During the meeting, the issue of 112 heritage buildings located in the old city areas along the route of the project was also discussed. The officials said that there was no threat to these buildings and development work was being carried out in a safe way. “We are in coordination with the World Bank to raise funds for the renovation of these buildings,” said an official of the Sindh government.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Memon said that the meeting was held to review work on the project and to brief the president of the development work, transport and command and control system.

Regarding water scarcity in Karachi, he said that he would talk to the prime minister on this issue. “Apart from the K-IV scheme, the federal government is considering developing another mega scheme in Karachi,” he said, adding that a scheme for a desalinisation plant was also under consideration for the metropolis.

Memon also spoke about the Karachi Circular Railway and said, “The prime minister approved the inclusion of this scheme in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project”.

“A meeting is scheduled with Chinese officials where this project will be formally presented as part of CPEC,”   he said.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said that they have also approved various schemes in Karachi to ease the transport issue and his government is launching 1,000 buses to resolve the transport issue in Sindh. The transport minister later briefed the media about the Sindh government’s project and Orange Line BRT, which is being built under a public private partnership scheme.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2016.