KARACHI: The city administration on Tuesday asked the gas, power, water and other utilities to expedite the shifting of their respective pipelines and other infrastructure on the way of Red Line bus rapid transit (BRT) project so that its construction could begin in December.

Informed sources told Dawn that a high-level meeting, presided over by Commissioner Muhammad Iqbal Memon, reviewed the work of shifting of infrastructure of the Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd, K Electric, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL).

They said that the representative of the utilities were also asked to extend all support for the shifting of pipelines so as to timely start the construction work on the corridor of the Red Line BRT, the first transport system of the country using biomethane produced from animal waste as the fuel resource.

Red Line, renamed as the Karachi Breeze Red Line Project, is approximately a 29-km-long corridor, extending from Model Colony in Malir to the Mazar-i-Quaid and Jinnah Avenue where it will intersect at Numaish with the Green Line corridor.

Utility services are told to expedite shifting of pipelines on the way of BRT project

The route of the Red Line project will pass through 13 major intersections and a total of 24 bus stops will be located along it where entry and exit points will be provided. Ten overhead bridges and seven underpasses have also been included in the BRT’s plan.

The process of tendering has been completed for the start of construction of work on the corridor in the month of December this year.

Trans Karachi, a registered company looking after over Rs78 billion project, had signed an agreement with a construction firm in August this year.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the chief financer of the project, which will provide funds along with the Sindh government, UN Green Climate Fund (GCF), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Agence Française de Développement (AFD). The GCF has issued a grant of $11 million for the project.

The operational design is being drafted by the Exponent Engineering Pvt Ltd and the detail design is being devised by the Mott MacDonald Pakistan (MMP), while the institutional development and capacity building has been undertaken by the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) and the Integrated Transport Planning Limited.

As many as 300,000 people are expected to use the corridor daily once it is completed.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2021