PESHAWAR: The multi-billion rupees Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project has started taking its toll on commercial activities along its route in Peshawar as businesses and shops run into losses amid uncertainty over timely completion of the project.

The University Road, an upscale neighbourhood of the city and a hub of business activities, is the worst-affected locality where businesses and various brands have either nosedived or they have started shifting elsewhere.

The University Road boasts of high-rise shopping malls, multi-storey apartment houses, eateries, furniture and electronics markets, automobile showrooms and workshops, wedding halls and outlets of commercial banks.

Major businesses shifting from University Road to other areas

After start of work on the bus project, the busy salesmen and shopkeepers are now either sitting idle or they appear busy in dusting.

A restaurant offering Arabic cuisines has been closed down a week ago. Many owners have locked their business outlets because of traffic congestion, severe dust and sharp decline in the number of customers.

The owner of a filling station along the BRT route claimed that the sale of petrol had dropped from 20,000 litres to 8,000 liters a day. He said that business of additional services provided to customers at the station like car washing was also affected due to the project.

Resettlement plan of the Rs49 billion BRT project worked out by the Asian Development Bank had forecasted minor effects on business activities in the city. It said that 19 vendors using one location in front of the Cantonment Board Plaza at Sunehri Masjid Road in Cantt area would be temporarily displaced during the construction phase.

Similarly, the restructuring/construction of Reach 3 (from Aman Chowk to Hayatabad) would cause minor resettlement impacts and only seven roadside static vendors would be displaced temporarily during the construction phase.

However, the plan did not consider other aspects that are badly affecting business activities because of abolition of the service roads and footpaths.

Shaukat Ullah, an office-bearer of Anjuman-i-Tajiran, said that the project had badly affected trade and business activities all over the city, including the cantonment area. “The negative impacts on businesses because of this project are even much more than those the people had faced during the worst period of terrorism in Peshawar,” he said.

Ismail Shahid, one of the pioneers of furniture business on the University Road, termed BRT a divine curse. Like few other competitors he is also shifting his showroom to the Ring Road area. His father had set up a display centre over three and a half decades ago in a rented building, for which he is presently paying a rent of Rs200,000 a month.

Another entrepreneur has displayed a banner in front of his showroom offering furniture on discount rate. He has also planned to shift to another area.

“It is unusual to sell furniture items on discount,” said Mr Shahid. “Thousands of carpenters and craftsmen working in over 400 furniture manufacturing units in the localities on both sides of the road have badly suffered due to decline in the business,” he added.

The neighbourhoods of the University Road also houses automobile workshops. Market sources said that several workshops had left the area and relocated their businesses to the Ring Road and other localities.

“Before the project, we would receive 50 to 65 vehicles for maintenance and repair work on daily basis, but now hardly 15 to 20 customers visit our workshop in a day,” said Gulistan Khan, an auto mechanic. He said that customers faced great inconvenience due to the construction work and avoided visiting this area.

The retailers fear that the University Road would lose its charm and attraction for customers after conversion of frontage roads into the main road. These service roads were used as parking facilities by the customers and shopkeepers. Major portion of the existing road has been allocated for BRT and its allied facilities.

Most of the shopping plazas and apartment buildings constructed along the main road did not have parking facilities. General traffic will run on the existing service roads that may create more inconvenience and problems for the local people and motorists in future.

“Our business is on the decline because of losing car parking space in front of the showroom,” said Mohammad Aqeel, a manager of a major clothing brand company. “We offered sale on discount a couple of times to dispose of the goods, so that we can relocate the business, but no customers come,” he said.

He said that open space in front of showrooms of three major brands had been marked for constructing BRT station and the companies had no other option, but close down outlets. “Customers will not prefer to visit this avenue for shopping or eating,” he said.

“Most of our customers either place online orders or go to Islamabad for shopping,” said Rahim Gul, a manager of another national level clothing brand. “Our business has recorded almost 60 per cent decline over the past few months and further delay in completion of the BRT project can result in shifting the outlet to another suitable market,” he said.

The only beneficiaries of prevailing situation appear to be some smalltime companies carrying out home delivery service through motorcyclists in the city. Imran Afridi, who runs a startup company, said that demand in service had increased by 50 per cent since the launch of the BRT project.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2018