ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to start Peshawar Mor to Islamabad International Airport (IIA) metro bus service from January 2022 for which 45 buses will be procured.

CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed told Dawn that the civic agency also planned to construct a bus depot worth Rs800 million at Peshawar Mor where buses the CDA plans to run on different routes in future would be parked, he added.

“The idea to use one depot for all buses is aimed at avoiding investing again and again on different depots,” he said.

Besides establishing a traffic control room, a smart traffic management system will be introduced to check violations of traffic rules and even overloading by local transports.

He said a few months ago, the National Highway Authority (NHSA) had handed over the Peshawar Mor to the IIA metro bus project to the civic agency.

CDA chairman orders procurement of 45 buses

“We have approved a PC-1 and started the process to procure 45 buses which will be run on the route. As tenders will open on Oct 15, we hope that we will receive the buses by January and the service will be started the same month,” he said.

Replying to a question, Mr Ahmed said the depot, control room and smart traffic system will be established with prefabricated material which will save time and make them operational within six months.

According to a statement, the CDA chairman chaired a meeting which was attended by CDA officers and consultants of the project.

The meeting reviewed progress on the metro bus project from Peshawar Mor to the IIA.

It was observed during the meeting that there were some missing facilities in the project.

Therefore, a separate PC-1 was prepared in consultation with experts to include required facilities such as intelligent transportation system, including automated fare collection, security surveillance, bus scheduling, vehicular location and command and control systems.

The consultants briefed the meeting about the facilities to be provided to the commuters at each bus station to facilitate them which include walk-through gates, security cameras, wifi, real time passenger information display and public announcement system.

A detailed layout plan of the bus depot was also presented in the meeting.

The bus depot contained separate areas for maintenance workshop, service area, resting area for drivers, admin block, parking bays, command and control centre and offices.

It was decided that the bus depot will not only cater to the requirements of the metro bus service but will also fulfil similar needs of the Islamabad bus service project. One depot will provide a consolidated and comprehensive cost effective solution.

This will bring savings to the exchequer also.

A daycare centre for female staff’s children, small barrack for guards providing security to the facility and provision of special ramps, rails and separate rest rooms for differently abled persons were added to the facility and the layout plan was approved in principle in the meeting.

The CDA chairman directed the project director and consultants of the project to ensure that procurement of buses is completed within four months in order to extend this facility to the citizens in the shortest possible time.

Instructions were also issued to the participants of the meeting to procure pre-engineered structures and steel frames so that the depot and control room are completed in six months.

Tenders for procurement of buses have already been floated and now the tenders for construction of the depot and the systems will also be floated to meet the timelines.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2021