BRT’s reach-1 gets new deadline

First section set to be inaugurated on May 20

PESHAWAR: Having already missed its April 30 deadline, the provincial government on Monday said that the first section of the metro bus project in Peshawar will now be completed on May 20.

This was stated by officials of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa associated with the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, including Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) Director General Isrurul Haq, Transport Secretary Kamran Rehman and Peshawar Commissioner Shahab Ali Shah, during a media briefing.

They said that 80 per cent of construction work on reach-1 (from Chamkani to Firdous) has been completed, while 75 per cent of work on reach-2 has been completed and 94 per cent of work on reach-3 has been completed.

Haq, in his presentation, explained that underground work for the Gulbahar flyovers has been completed and that they will be ready for the grand inauguration by May 20.

“We will try to complete the civil work, but if the flyover is not ready for traffic, we will not risk its inauguration,” he said while responding to a question regarding the work required on the project to complete it.

He disclosed that the PDA was building three flyovers at Firdous Chowk, for which 80 per cent of the underground work has been completed.

“It was the most complex part of the reach since two to three flyovers are being built here,” he said, adding that the underpasses of the reach-1 have already been completed and are ready for buses to ply through them.

He added that bus stations have been built and that three to four of them will be installed within a week along reach-1.

Regarding reach-2, which will see buses travel on an elevated platform from Firdous Chowk and passes over Saddar before ending at Aman Chowk, he said that Aman Chowk was a challenge but they have still managed to complete 80 per cent of the work. Haq added that transoms on pillars for reach-2 are almost ready while girders are being fixed.



The deadline for completing work on the section, he said, was May 15.

Regarding reach-3, he said that 94 per cent of the work on the section has been completed. But since it is the longest portion of the project, it had taken longer than other sections.

He explained that the underground work for the Tehkal flyover is almost complete with pillars erected. The entire section, he said, is expected to be completed by May 30.

 The Tajabad flyover, though, will be opened for traffic in June.

Regarding the supply of buses for the project over which the government had last week dismissed the chief executive officer of the TransPeshawar transport company, the officials said that the first batch of buses is expected to arrive from China in June.

The transport secretary refuted the notion that the buses selected for the BRT have not been tested nor used anywhere in the world.

“These are diesel buses with hybrid technology, which means that up to a certain speed, the bus will run on battery and then will convert to diesel,” he said adding that they have tested the buses with the best available expert in the market.



The officials further said that they have overshot the project’s estimated costs, with the bill having already swelled to Rs60 billion. However, they explained that this sum includes all the components of the project, including the buses, the intelligent transport system and the civil work.

Even though the officials had specific dates for portions of the project, none had any idea of when the entire project is expected to be completed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2018.