PESHAWAR: After a yearlong delay, the women-only pink bus service will hit the roads in Mardan district on Thursday (April 4).

Officials in the TransPeshawar Company, operator of the Peshawar’s Bus Rapid Transit project which has been tasked to run the pink buses, confirmed that they had awarded a contract to a company and all details had been finalised in that regard.

“We are preparing to inaugurate the project on April 4 in Mardan,” an official said.

He said that process to select operator for Abbottabad was also in final stages and that they were optimistic that the same company which had been awarded contract for pink buses in Mardan would get the contract.

Another source told Dawn that launch of Abbottabad bus service was also in the process and was likely to be finalised by the end of the current month.

The source said that the launch of the project in the Mardan district would be a milestone towards facilitating the female population, which lacked decent transportation facilities.

He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan should take ownership of the project and inaugurate it, which will highlight the provincial government’s seriousness toward women empowerment.

In May last year, the United Nations Office on Project Services had handed over 14 pink buses worth Rs100 million to the KP government to operate as women-only transport service in Mardan and Abbottabad districts.

However, the launch of the service was delayed for about a year due to disinterest of the transport companies.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2019