'A modern facility in need is a real change indeed'
PHOTO: APP
In line with the vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan to resolve the long-standing transportation problems of Karachiites on a priority basis, the incumbent government of Pakistan has taken the metro bus project and completed it in a short possible time.
Prime Minister of Pakistan will inaugurate a state-of-the-art articulated & environment-friendly bus for Green Line Bus Karachi. The incumbent Government of Pakistan executed this priority PSDP Project "Green Line Bus Rapid Transit System" in Karachi, on a fast-track basis to meet the transportation needs for the people of Karachi as in Karachi the transportation facilities were pathetic especially women were facing huge difficulties while traveling towards their destinations.
The real change
The project of BRT Karachi is completed with the special efforts and keen interest of the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives as per the vision of the incumbent Government to provide better and state-of-the-art transportation facilities to the Karachi folks. The Green Line Bus Service will provide reliable, safe, affordable, and high-quality traveling services to all and sundry. It will improve the quality of life of commuters in Karachi and will improve the quality of the public transport system in Karachi. In Green Line Bus Fleet there are 80 articulated buses, while the bus is equipped with a cell phone charging port facility which is the first of its nature trait in the history of Pakistan. Besides this, there is dedicated space for elders and women, an automatic boarding facility for special persons, dedicated screens for information and publicity, a vehicle location system, fire, and safety equipment, and a vehicle location system. There are 25 BRT stations from where approximately more than 300,000 passengers will travel daily. All the BRT stations are equipped with escalators, elevators, passenger sliding doors, ticket vending machines, ticket office machines, water coolers, automated fare collection system, scanners and walk-through gates, informative maps, and public address system.
The most unique identity of Green Line stations is their connection from one station to another. All mass transit corridors are planned to facilitate commuters and provide them with end-to-end and reliable public transport services. However, it is important to understand that all of these major corridors converge at Numaish before entering into MA Jinnah Road Common Corridor. This makes Numaish an important location for BRT System in Karachi to ensure interoperability among BRT System. This further makes Numaish a natural location for placing a staging facility for controlling and optimizing and regulating bus operations city-wide.
Staging Facilities are one of the most important components of all successful BRT projects globally. It helps save money spent on bus operations to a significant level and also helps in optimizing and adjusting fleet operations as the demand varies along the day. Additionally, it provides a turnaround facility that can be utilized during operations but also reduces the dead mileage.
Operational and Control Centre at Garden, Saddar
To ensure integration of all BRT Lines and adopt uniform standards, and to have a single OCC, the Integrated Intelligent Transportation System Project has been taken up by Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Limited (SIDCL), Government of Pakistan.
The OCC will be a central system for all mass transit lines in Karachi. The OCC premises will contain the Servers room, Test Room, training, and management center.
The OCC has large screen monitors to oversee the current situation of the fleet. Current status of buses, terminal stations, CCTV images along the corridor for the selectively displayed at the OCC.
Bus Scheduling, bus tracking, and bus alert management, as well as Passenger Information systems, shall be managed/monitored via the Operation and Control Center (OCC).
All future BRT lines can easily be accommodated and will have a plug-and-play system.
Last but not the least, the Green Bus project which has been completed by the Ministry of Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives is a new start and a new episode in the transportation history of Karachi.
The writer Ayesha Khan is an Ex-Senior journalist, also working in a Government (Development) Sector,she tweets @Aishakhan_123, and can be contacted at ayeshahaiqa@gmail.com
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2021.