Three years on: IMC, CDA unable to start work on feeder bus project

Project was supposed to link Metro Bus stations and different parts of the capital

ISLAMABAD: Over three years after the local government had been elected into office in the federal capital, they and the civic agency have failed to start a project of operating 22 feeder buses in the city.

The project was supposed to facilitate the public by connecting the feeder buses with different stations of the Metro Bus. Three years ago, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had proposed a plan to start feeder buses in Islamabad. The civic body had estimated that it would cost around Rs200 million-to-Rs250 million per annum to run and maintain the feeder buses.

The process of setting up and operating these buses was supposed to have taken just four months to complete and would have helped augment the rising traffic load on streets of the federal capital.

The proposal further stated that these buses were supposed to cover major routes and areas of the federal capital to facilitate residents and office goers living on the designated routes.

The CDA had planned out four routes for the bust to take. The first route was to commence from Bhara Kahu up to the Margharzar Zoo covering Dhokri, Aabpara, the Federal Government Services Hospital - Polyclinic and Sector F-6.

The second route was to cover areas between Rawat and Faisal Mosque. The third was planned from Tarnol up to the Fatima Jinnah (F-9) Park to link with the Ibn-e-Seena Road Metro Station and would cover Sector G-13 and other areas of the G and F sectors including the main Sector G-9 Markaz — Karachi Company. The fourth route was supposed to operate from the Railway Carriage Factory up to the IJ Principal Road Metro Station.

It had been proposed that a bus would run every 30 minutes. But three years on, the project is nowhere in sight.

IMC Deputy Mayor Syed Zeeshan Naqvi explained that they have been unable to start work on the project because they did not have any funds.

He said that Mayor Islamabad Sheikh Anser Aziz had requested the federal government to release the requisite funds so that they could start work on the project.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2018.