Mass transit plan: ‘Finish line close for the Karachi yellow line’
Government gets most of its homework done for first BRTS line.
The Marwat Coach already runs 100 buses on the yellow line stretch, raising the question of what will happen to them. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS
KARACHI:
An entire generation has grown up hearing of the legend of the Karachi mass transit plan. They actually don’t really know what the words ‘mass transit’ mean, of course, because they travel in cars and on motorcycles. But if Rasheed Mughal is to be believed, work will start on one stretch of the plan in December. God willing, he says. Because by now we all think it’s going to take nothing short of divine intervention.
On Thursday, Mughal was invited by the Urban Resource Centre to talk about the Karachi Urban Transport Improvement Plan 2030, spearheaded by the Japanese who studied the city’s needs. Mughal is currently working as a consultant to get the plan off the ground with the Sindh government’s transport department — a tough gig but one he’s qualified for given that he was once the director-general of the city’s mass transit cell. He also held the post of EDO Works under mayor Mustafa Kamal whose ethos was ‘build, baby, build’ for flyovers.
So this is the update: “An ADB [Asian Development Bank] team is due next month,” Mughal said. “And within 15 days the draft law for the Sindh Mass Transit Authority should be presented in the Sindh Assembly.” The authority will be a regulator that will monitor the work which the government wants to be undertaken in public-private partnerships. It doesn’t intend to run the buses itself. The draft is being scrutinised by the law department.
If all of this goes well, Mughal says work should start on the yellow line by December 2014.
The ADB team is going to be talking to the Sindh government about which line - the red or green - they will be funding with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the UNDP or United Nations Development Programme. Sindh, will, of course, have to fork out a certain percentage as well. The question is which line is a priority after the yellow one. The work needs to get done by 2017 or costs will go up horrifyingly and the solutions envisioned by Jica will be less applicable as people and vehicular populations grow.
“There is pressure now,” said Mughal, answering a question on why he seems so optimistic the government and politicians will see at least the yellow line through now. Lahore’s BRTS had an impact on Sindh’s thinking.
Mughal spent two years priming finance minister Murad Ali Shah, himself an engineer, that getting around in Karachi will be impossible unless something is done. “If we do nothing then by 2030 the journey that takes us one hour now will take three,” he warned. As far as he’s concerned, it is his job to persuade Murad Ali Shah and the politician will have to convince everyone else.
The 2030 plan broadly includes upgrading road infrastructure, six dedicated bus BRTS lines and two mass rail or MRTS lines. It will cost Rs428 billion. The yellow line seems to be making the most progress. It runs 22km long from Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish Chowrangi and Lucky Star via the 8000-Road in Korangi and the Finance And Trade Centre. It will cost Rs13 billion and will need 70 buses and 26 stations. A consortia of consultants of KPMG for the finances, NESPAK for the technicalities and Mohsin Tayybaly for the legalities, is involved.
The Marwat Coach already runs 100 buses on the yellow line stretch, raising the question of what will happen to them. Mughal’s solution is that the existing buses will be given arterial routes so that they don’t suffer loss of income. He seems to understand that everyone needs to be on board for the yellow line to work.
The only problem is that we’ve been hearing about it since August 2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2014.
An entire generation has grown up hearing of the legend of the Karachi mass transit plan. They actually don’t really know what the words ‘mass transit’ mean, of course, because they travel in cars and on motorcycles. But if Rasheed Mughal is to be believed, work will start on one stretch of the plan in December. God willing, he says. Because by now we all think it’s going to take nothing short of divine intervention.
On Thursday, Mughal was invited by the Urban Resource Centre to talk about the Karachi Urban Transport Improvement Plan 2030, spearheaded by the Japanese who studied the city’s needs. Mughal is currently working as a consultant to get the plan off the ground with the Sindh government’s transport department — a tough gig but one he’s qualified for given that he was once the director-general of the city’s mass transit cell. He also held the post of EDO Works under mayor Mustafa Kamal whose ethos was ‘build, baby, build’ for flyovers.
The mass transit programme 2030 suggested by JICA said that the Yellow, Red and Green BRT projects can be undertaken as priority projects. SOURCE: KARACHI URBAN TRANSPORT IMPROVEMENT PLAN 2030
So this is the update: “An ADB [Asian Development Bank] team is due next month,” Mughal said. “And within 15 days the draft law for the Sindh Mass Transit Authority should be presented in the Sindh Assembly.” The authority will be a regulator that will monitor the work which the government wants to be undertaken in public-private partnerships. It doesn’t intend to run the buses itself. The draft is being scrutinised by the law department.
If all of this goes well, Mughal says work should start on the yellow line by December 2014.
The ADB team is going to be talking to the Sindh government about which line - the red or green - they will be funding with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the UNDP or United Nations Development Programme. Sindh, will, of course, have to fork out a certain percentage as well. The question is which line is a priority after the yellow one. The work needs to get done by 2017 or costs will go up horrifyingly and the solutions envisioned by Jica will be less applicable as people and vehicular populations grow.
“There is pressure now,” said Mughal, answering a question on why he seems so optimistic the government and politicians will see at least the yellow line through now. Lahore’s BRTS had an impact on Sindh’s thinking.
Mughal spent two years priming finance minister Murad Ali Shah, himself an engineer, that getting around in Karachi will be impossible unless something is done. “If we do nothing then by 2030 the journey that takes us one hour now will take three,” he warned. As far as he’s concerned, it is his job to persuade Murad Ali Shah and the politician will have to convince everyone else.
The 2030 plan broadly includes upgrading road infrastructure, six dedicated bus BRTS lines and two mass rail or MRTS lines. It will cost Rs428 billion. The yellow line seems to be making the most progress. It runs 22km long from Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish Chowrangi and Lucky Star via the 8000-Road in Korangi and the Finance And Trade Centre. It will cost Rs13 billion and will need 70 buses and 26 stations. A consortia of consultants of KPMG for the finances, NESPAK for the technicalities and Mohsin Tayybaly for the legalities, is involved.
The Marwat Coach already runs 100 buses on the yellow line stretch, raising the question of what will happen to them. Mughal’s solution is that the existing buses will be given arterial routes so that they don’t suffer loss of income. He seems to understand that everyone needs to be on board for the yellow line to work.
The only problem is that we’ve been hearing about it since August 2012.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 19th, 2014.