Green Line BRT: Urban planners fear chaos on roads

Bus service may get stuck in limbo if authorities fail to establish parking plazas

KARACHI: Billions of rupees being spent on the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) may go down the drain if authorities fail to build parking plazas.

This is one of the biggest concerns of urban planners and transport experts of the city. The Green Line may get stuck in limbo once it enters MA Jinnah Road in segregated lanes, if the authorities fail to solve the chronic parking woes of Saddar and MA Jinnah Road.

The Green Line BRT, which will run in segregated lanes, was initially planned to run from Surjani Town to Guru Mandir, where it was supposed to join the Blue Line BRT. The Blue Line BRT, which is supposed to run from Bahria Town, was supposed to take over the route till Merewether Tower. However, due to delays in the latter, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced last year that the Green Line's infrastructure will be extended all the way till Merewether Tower.



The project, initially estimated worth Rs16 billion, is being funded by the federal government through a company, Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL). The project is likely to cost Rs7 billion to Rs8 billion more for the additional loop.

The city's top architects and planners were asked to give their input on the Green Line's connectivity and supplementary transit services for serving the Central District Business (CDB) in Karachi that is till Merewether Tower.

The plan

Originally, according to the route map of the Blue Line BRT, they had planned eight parking plazas or spots for parking provisions around the CDB area. The Blue Line, according to their plan, would have reached the Merewether Tower, with a low height underpass of 1.5 metre at Campbell Street. This route for Blue Line was designed by Exponent Engineering Pvt Ltd.



Operational consultant for both the Green and Blue lines, Ashar Lodhi, explained this route on a field trip for journalists arranged by the KIDCL last year. The Green Line, according to this plan, could go straight to Merewether Tower, after passing through Jamia Cloth Market, where MA Jinnah Road becomes one-way. The right of way here is 25 to 30 metres.

There would be two stations in that loop - one at Boulton Market and the other at Merewether Tower. He said eight parking plazas could be constructed in the additional loop to make MA Jinnah Road a parking-free zone. Right after Campbell Street, Lodhi proposed that till the Tower, MA Jinnah Road could be turned into a pedestrian zone, with the Green Line running in the centre at low speed, separated by bollards.

This area, according to him, is 1.4 kilometres in length. For traffic that is supposed to go beyond Jinnah Bridge, Lodhi explained that the it could run on two parallel roads, Sharae Liaquat and Nishtar Road. He pointed out that without making these two corridors free of encroachment and parking, the Green Line will not be able to get to its logical end.

The problem

Unfortunately, KIDCL has not allocated any funds for the construction of parking plazas in the CDB area and neither has the Sindh government asked for it, according to KIDCL chief financial officer Zubair Channa.

"There isn't any space for a parking plaza in the CDB area," said Karachi Mass Transit Authority's Athar Khan. He added that they will need one-acre for a parking plaza, which is impossible in the existing scenario because there isn't any provision for a parking plaza in that area.



He accepted that parks, such as Aram Bagh, Jahangir Park, and the land behind the City Court, can be used under the public-private partnership mode, which the Sindh government is considering. However, for this, he said, they have not requested the KIDCL.

Responding to this, one of the officials of the KIDCL, on the condition of anonymity, said there is already a parking plaza in Saddar, which the Sindh government has failed to operate till date, due to ill enforcement of traffic rules. "How will they be able to operate new parking plazas?" the official asked, adding that the Sindh government has not made any such request for a parking plaza.

The mandate of the KIDCL, according to the official, is just to construct the infrastructure; the Sindh government will operate the Green Line. "We are already constructing a command and control centre for all the BRTs in the city along with depots for the BRTs, on the request of the city government," he said, adding that had the Sindh government requested for parking plazas they could have included that in the plans.

An urban planner, on condition of anonymity, said that the Sindh government will create chaos on the roads six months after the completion of the Green Line BRT, as they are not looking into the operational aspects.