PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has ordered the successful execution of the Rapid Bus Transit project in the provincial capital within six months and warned that heavy fines will be imposed on those responsible for delay in this regard.

“This vital project of urban transport must be completed within six months or earlier. Heavy fine should be imposed on the culpable persons in case of any delay in this regard,” he told a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House on Monday.

Among the participants were Asian Development Bank representatives led by the regional director, senior minister Sikandar Sherpao, transport minister Shah Mohammad Wazir, the CM’s focal person for Peshawar’s mega projects Shaukat Yousafzai, Peshawar nazim Arbab Asim Khan, CM Complaint Cell chairman Haji Dilroz Khan, chief secretary Abid Saeed, additional chief secretary Azam Khan, administrative secretaries, senior officials of the relevant departments and organisations.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Urban Mobility Authority officials gave a presentation on the proposed bus service.

Says work on Peshawar BRT must be completed within six months or earlier

The participants later approved the bus branding, logo and monogram of the project.

An official statement issued here said the CM resented the mention of eight months instead of original six as the BRT execution period in certain tendering documents, and ordered the completion of work on the transport service within six months or earlier.

Mr Khattak agreed in principle to the request of the ADB mission for extending the last date to apply for the BRT bidding from June 19 to June 29 over ‘certain technical reasons’. He however said the project must be completed within the specified framework just in time or much earlier in line with the international criteria.

The CM was told that the ADB was providing Rs41.881 billion for the project compared to the provincial share of Rs7.46 billion.

Mr Khattak asked the relevant consultants to complete work on all stations of the proposed bus service in attractive modern yet same designs. Three consultants have been working on the project’s separate sections of coordination, operation design, business model (ODBM), and construction plan.

The CM asked the consultants to work round the clock to successfully execute the project in line with international standards and ensure the facilitation of public and smooth passage of the traffic during the construction.

He agreed to the recommendation of the ADB about the construction of the main transit route in strips and that the middle one meter strip will be kept open for like grass, while the remaining 3.5 meter strips on both sides would consist on metaled slates.

The CM was told that such stripped route was used successfully in 10 countries that besides reducing the construction cost also added to the beauty of the corridor.

He said the hiring of the necessary staff for the BRT project was on the cards.

The project has four packages. The first starts from the main bus terminal in Chamkani to Qila Balahisar and the second towards Aman Chowk, while the third ends at Hayatabad. The fourth package includes the construction of shopping plazas and other commercial buildings.

The CM was told that 450 air-conditioned busses would ply the bus route, whose fare would be ‘much economical’.

The CM said minor changes to the original design of the bus route should not hinder the timely execution of the project.

He ordered the speedy completion of work on the project and said he would never allow any delay whatsoever on it.

The CM also accepted the proposal of third-party validation of the original design prepared by the Asian Development Bank.

The relevant officials informed the meeting about the process of implementation with special reference to the engineering designs, colour combination, the width and length and the proposed widening of bus stations.

They also said the project was unique due to the direct service operational model with the main corridors’ length as 26 kilometers, including the six kilometers elevated and five kilometers tunnel having 32 bus stations and integrating 68 kilometers feeding routes.

The CM approved the model.

He also gave consent to 150 shelters on feeder routes, six-storey commercial and parking plazas, the bike sharing system and allied infrastructure for pedestrians.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2017