KARACHI: The Sindh government on Monday was informed about the ‘objections’ raised by a section of civil society vis-a-vis construction of the Rs24.6 billion federally-funded Green Line Bus Rapid Transit System’s (BRTS) extended portion on MA Jinnah Road, on which the Sindh and federal governments had reached an agreement after thorough deliberations.

This was revealed in a meeting presided over by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House.

Green Line BRTS project director Sualeh Farooqui said the KIDCL (Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Ltd) had completed 60 per cent of the infrastructure work up to Gurumandir as per original scope of the Green Line BRTS and was all geared up to complete the first phase of the project by the end of December.

Originally, the project was 18.4km from Surjani Town to Gurumandir and now it has been extended to Municipal Park, MA Jinnah Road, and its total cost has increased to Rs24.6bn.

He said that as per Sindh government’s approved alignment and the route of the project, an underpass would be constructed at the Numaish roundabout. It would be converging into an elevated BRTS portion short of Taj Complex signal and up to Municipal Park area near Jamia Cloth Market.

He said the elevated turnaround rotary was proposed and designed for construction at Municipal Park which would facilitate 19.2-metre articulated buses to turn back towards Surjani Town. Architect Arif Hasan and Prof Noman Ahmed, who were present at the meeting, said civil society had raised objection over the construction of the elevated portion on MA Jinnah Road for the reason that it would obstruct the clear sight of the Quaid’s mausoleum from either side of the road if the elevated BRTS portion was constructed on the median of MA Jinnah Rd. On this, the chief minister was told that the KIDCL had halted the bid process for construction on the elevated portion.

Mohammad Athar, DG of the Sindh Mass Transit Authority (SMTA), said the decision to construct the elevated BRTS portion at MA Jinnah Rd was taken by the Sindh government and was communicated to the KIDCL. The decision was taken by the Sindh transport ministry after thorough deliberations and discussions on all the other alternative options in the best interest of the Green Line project, he added.

CM Shah said the construction on the elevated portion was the only option to construct the extended portion of the project at Jamia Cloth area.

“Since civil society has raised some objections, I would suggest you (MTA and KIDCL) to prepare a detailed drawing of the project so that a final decision could be taken,” he said, adding that being an engineer he would personally work on it.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017