BEIJING: Chinese bus manufacturers Zhongtong has secured an order to provide 100 units of 18-metre-long buses for Green Line and Orange Line Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) projects in Karachi.

The buses will be in green and orange colours and provide the people of Karachi a badly-needed comfortable mode of transportation besides easing traffic congestion.

Tweeting in Urdu from his official account recently, federal Minister of Planning and Development Asad Umar gave the information about the completion of a prototype bus for Karachi’s Green Line Metro bus project.

It is currently being tested by Chinese authorities for mechanical and safety issues. Once the inspection is completed, a total of 80 buses will be shipped to Karachi and added to Green Line’s fleet. The mass transit project is expected to become operational this year.

Green Line BRT is a federal government project. It is the largest of all other proposed metro bus routes in Karachi.

It is expected that after completion, it will facilitate over 300,000 passengers on a daily basis. Construction on the project started in January 2016 by Karachi’s Infrastructural Development Company (KIDC) and, nearly five years later, it is still incomplete.

Starting from Merewether Tower in the central part of the city, all the way up to Surjani Town in northern Karachi, the total length of Green Line BRT is 26km.

According to the proposed map, it will be connected with other proposed routes of the Trans Karachi Breeze project at different points.

So far, Zhongtong’s new energy public transportation solutions have been greatly welcomed in South Korea, Argentina, Germany, Chile, Paraguay, Hungary, etc.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2021