Trial run of metro bus service on cards

Official says CDA plans to run 30 buses from Peshawar Morr to Islamabad airport

ISLAMABAD:

The trial run of the metro bus service from Peshawar Morr to Islamabad International Airport (IIA) will start in the first week of April after the arrival of buses from China.

A senior official of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told APP that authority has planned to run at least 30 buses painted in orange colour on the route. However, the current shipment was carrying 15 buses, he added.

The official said that the ship transporting the buses would start its journey to Karachi on March 15. The ship was expected to arrive from China in 20 days. The launch of bus service, he said would improve the public transport facility in the city.

The federal apex agency had announced to start bus service operation on March 23 but the same was delayed due to some unavoidable circumstances. The authority took over the metro bus project in March last year from the National Highway Authority (NHA) on the direction of the federal government and started the process to procure the buses.

Read: Metro bus service to Islamabad airport from March 23

For the fiscal year 2020-21, the government had earmarked Rs300 million for the project. The corridors and stations of the metro track had already been constructed and now command and control, ticketing, station management, cleanliness and security systems were being completed. In March last year, NHA after construction of the corridor and stations handed over the project to the CDA.

The NHA had launched work on the 25.6km-long track from Peshawar Morr to IIA worth Rs16 billion in Jan 2017. The project was supposed to complete in Aug 2018 but its civil work was completed last year.

2.5m seedlings planted

Islamabad is on track to regain its beauty as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has planted some 2.5 million seedlings of exotic flowers on multiple median strips, roundabouts and other places of major roads.

Director General Environment of CDA, Irfan Khan Niazi said that the flowers’ seedlings were planted before the start of the spring season, which he believed, was the most ideal weather among all the seasons for their growth. “We have planted different contrasted and multi-striped varieties of decorative flowers including petunia in white, blue, yellow, pink and red shades,” he said, terming them the most attractive and long-lasting spring plants that would grow till the end of June.

He said as Islamabad was enriched with great fauna, the authority was striving to adorn all the major thoroughfares including 7th and Constitutional Avenues, Srinagar and Islamabad highways with beautiful flowers and plants.

“For the very first time, hundreds of beds have been laid with thousands of flowers on the thoroughfares of D-12 sector and a special flowers scheme has also been designed with colorful flowers on different attractive patterns for public in the F-9 Park,” he added.

Highlighting the challenges of environmental pollution, he said the civic body was leaving no stone unturned to clean and beautify Islamabad, but the city administration needed the cooperation of citizen.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2022.