ISLAMABAD: Though the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government almost completed the project of metro bus service from Peshawar Mor to Islamabad International Airport (IIA), it is not clear who is going to run the bus service.

The authorities concerned are said to be in a fix over the matter after the Capital Development Authority, National Highway Authority (NHA) and the Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA) refused to operate buses on the 26.6 km-long route after completion of the project at an estimated cost of Rs16 billion by the NHA.

Earlier, it was believed that the PMTA would run the bus service but when the authority refused the CDA and NHA were asked to take the responsibility.

However, both the organisations also expressed their inability saying they did not have the experience or any facility to run the service.

“At a meeting it was considered that the CDA should ply the metro buses from Peshawar Mor to the new airport. However, we refused to take this responsibility because we have no such expertise,” said CDA Member Planning Asad Kayani.

He said the problem surfaced when PMTA refused to fulfil its commitment to run the service.

The official said authorities concerned were quite worried that how the service would be run as 90pc work on the project had completed.

The NHA has so far constructed a separate road, underpasses, pavements besides installing streetlights. but some work is still underway to complete the bus stations.

When contacted, NHA spokesman Kashif Zaman said the authority was about to complete the project but it cannot not run the bus service.

“We also have no such expertise to ply metro buses on the new route,” he added.

The official said the issue was quite serious because a huge amount of money had been spent on the project and it would remain useless if the buses were not operated.

He said earlier authorities in Punjab had taken the responsibility to run the bus service but now they had backed out.

The metro project was launched in view of the new airport that started operations last month. However, there is no public bus service to facilitate the citizens travelling to and from the airport.

The PML-N government did not make arrangements to import buses for the project.

In the absence of a bus service, passengers will have to rely on cabs and other private vehicles.

In February this year, the then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi took notice of the uncertainty regarding the operation of the new metro bus service and wrote a letter to the NHA. He had directed the NHA to float a request for proposals and immediately start the tendering process for the procurement of buses.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2018