KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday inaugurated a much-awaited modern transportation system in the country’s most densely populated city of Karachi where residents frequently complain of traffic congestion.
The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Green Line Project, which has been completed at a cost of Rs35.5 billion, was announced by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in July 2014.
The fleet of 80 buses is likely to serve 135,000 people on a daily basis who regularly cover the 21-kilometer stretch between Surjani Town and Numaish Chowrangi which will be served by the new transportation system.
The route has 22 stations, each one installed with modern ticketing system.
Pakistan has imported large buses from China to operationalize the project. Each bus has a capacity to accommodate 151 people.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony, the prime minister emphasized the significance of modern transportation system for bustling cities.
“No city can develop without a modern transportation system,” he said, adding: “Karachi is rightly called the engine Pakistan’s growth and it deserves modern transport.”
The prime minister said all advanced global cities, such as Paris, London, New York and Tehran, had well developed transport systems which were effectively managed.
“The management of these cities is based on modern lines,” he continued. “Despite US sanctions, Tehran has remained a modern city that can be compared to Paris or London.”
The prime minister said the project would become fully operational from mid-January after the completion of the trial phase.
Karachi has received the metro bus service after Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.
The BRT project also acquired a political dimension after members of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party performed its symbolic inauguration on Thursday to remind people it was launched by their previous administration.
However, the country’s planning minister Asad Umar said the PML-N had stayed in power for 28 months after the project was approved but did not focus on the infrastructure development project.
The completion of the project will provide people with secure access to the central business district of the city.
Discussing other projects in Karachi, Umar said the planning ministry had received the revised feasibility for the K-IV water supply project that was likely to be approved in the next one month before issuance of fresh contracts.
While the project was expected to complete by 2023, he continued, it was going to supply 260 million gallons of water to the city.
