KARACHI: The Green Line bus rapid transit project is likely to become operational next year by March as the infrastructure development company, which is a federal agency for building the corridor, has also been entrusted to procure buses and is now in the process of floating tenders to acquire a fleet of vehicles to make the project operational.

This emerged from an exchange of views between a group of the media and a member of the National Assembly from Karachi (NA-247) Aftab Siddiqui of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

In reply to a question, he said the inordinate delay in its operation was due to impediments in its completion as the project, which at the time of its launching was from Surjani Town to Gurumandir, was later extended up to Municipal Park. Besides, at the time of approval of the project, it was agreed that the infrastructure would be built by the federal government while procuring buses and their operation would be the responsibility of the Sindh government.

The ground realities at present indicate that the federal agency, Karachi Infrastructure Development Company, had completed phase one of the 21-kilometre dedicated corridor of the Green Line while civil work on its phase II, including construction of an underpass, an underground bus terminal and 1.5km common corridor from Gurumandir to Municipal Park on M.A. Jinnah Road, was in progress.

According to the PTI leader, the federal government had already allocated Rs2.55 billion during the current financial year for making the Green Line bus project operational, which would take care of some 400,000 commuters daily.

However, Sindh Transport Minister Syed Awais Shah was not optimistic as he was on record as saying that he did not see the Green Line buses running in Karachi before December 2020.

But, political analysts were of the view that the project could be feasible early next year provided there was political stability in the country.

The other issues which came under discussion pertained to water, sanitation, owning of the city and the need to have a provincial financial commission on the pattern of the National Finance Commission to empower the local bodies to implement their projects without any obstacle.

It also emerged during the discussion that the solution to all problems of Karachi lay in holding fresh, accurate and transparent census and by redrawing the master plan keeping in view the future needs of the megacity where the annual influx of people continued at a staggering rate. Without facts and figures about the population, the issues of the megacity could not be resolved.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2019